The Keys to Publishing Success -- Reinvention

Hi folks, I'm continuing my series about the keys of publishing success.  This week I'm going to talk about reinvention. I've observed this several times from unpublished to well-known writers -- an interesting phenomena. I call it it reinvention.You might need to reinvent yourself to find publishing success. What does this mean?

Perhaps you have longed to write the great American novel, but no one is interested in your work. A little middle grade story is bubbling on the back burner, and YAY!, you write it and you become an international success story. You've written twenty romance novels and can pay for coffee but then someone is murdered in your story -- you run with it, and YAY!, your award-winning crime thriller is soon optioned. You might be writing picture books but then you get an idea for a World-War II drama, the book takes off, and YAY!, NYT Bestsellers List and your name become best friends.

The pressure of failure is what pushes you toward success. Don't let repeated failures dishearten and overwhelm you, instead consider reinvention. If things haven't been working out, perhaps it is time to jump ship to another genre. Reinvent.

Reinvention works this way too. Some writers have a butterfly thing going on. They are crawling around like a caterpillar, writing any copy they can get paid for, but miraculous changes are happening within them.  They take their lunch breaks, wake up early in the morning and stay up late at night to plunk out their stories. They write all day and then go home, and write the stuff of their souls. The day comes when they self publish and find themselves paying off the mortgage of their home in a matter of weeks. Reinvention is afoot.

The pressure of missing the boat keeps these folks focused.  Don't be afraid you'll never get there, your efforts are not in vain. Let yourself dream and hope. This is the cauldron of reinvention. You're not languishing, writing that catalogue copy; you're adding nutrients to your coming transformation.

One more group has spent years at a desk job and haven't written much at all, but they have read, and read, and read. One day the life changes. They lose jobs. The spouse leaves.  Tragedy broadsides. It's time to reinvent, and the results are amazing.

Wrapping up, try something new, keep slogging forward, or finally write that book. Reinvent.

This week is another photo: "Texas Big Sky".

 

A quote for your pocket: 

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. C. S. Lewis