March 26, 2015

There are a lot of Books! (1000 Words)

Last week, David, the girls' and I, were in yet another bookstore. As I checked what was new against my list of books to purchase (and the girls did the same) I realized that there are a lot of books out there. And some of them are not very good. At all. I know why some get published. Once you are someone, you can pretty much do anything you wantstart a clothing line, have a perfume named after you, and of course, write a book. I glanced at the names and topics and quickly surmised that people will read just about anything. So why not something you write?

Sure, you may not be famous (yet), you may not have a particularly pretty name (that's why pen names exist), but you could still write one. It may not be a best-seller or makes its way onto Oprah's list, but you could still write one. It may only interest 1,000 people instead of 1,000,000 people, but you could still write one.

What keeps us from reaching this goal is that big, giant voice of self-doubt. Squash it! Do it anyway.

I've been reading some very nice stories about people who self-publish and voila!, a publisher picks them up after the first run. I read about writers who were rejected again and again and again, and a lot of them are now best-selling authors. I read about writers who get book deals because of their incredibly popular blogs. And I read about writers who are content to write just for the love of writing and are happy in their choice to remain "unpublished". 

These stories inspire me and keep me going when those 1,000 words seem like 1,000,000.

3 comments:

Wendy Wrzos said...

This post really inspired me, Kim!
Thank you.
(p.s. Enjoy your weekend).

Anonymous said...

Yes, discouragement comes with the territory. But if you never try, even just a little, what is there left to do?

This post came at a good time for me.

Thank you,
Erin

Kimberly Merritt said...

I'm glad it inspired both of you. Have a great week and thank you for reading.