~ By Gabi Stevens
We all enter this writing career with dreams of best-sellerdom and fame. We all hope to write for a living and maybe even a little extra. Reality often derails those plans—your numbers were never big enough, you were orphaned, you never received support from your publishing house, your agent left the business; readers never discovered you in the morass of Amazon. Whatever.
Honestly, your experience is not unusual. Few authors have had a smooth ride to superstardom, and I’d wager you can name authors who were on top a few years ago, but you don’t see them much now. Most of us have had setbacks or seemingly career-ending events. Or we’ve made mistakes. So now what do you do?
The word is flexibility.
“Wait,” I can hear you say. “I’ve always heard that perseverance is the key to a writing career.” It is. Flexibility is merely an aspect of perseverance, a subplot if you will. You’ve tried and tried in one genre and didn’t break through/didn’t sell/the genre died. You have two choices: give up or move on.
Giving up is easy, and, if you can, I highly recommend it. No more worries about deadlines, editing, revisions, or (gasp!) a synopsis. You can live a “normal” life. Learn to cook healthy meals. Exercise and learn to really touch your toes. Have friends. However, if you’re like me, that isn’t an option. So moving on it is.
You can continue to write the same books and expect the same results (Einstein’s definition of insanity) or you can try something new. A new genre. Surely there is more than one genre you read and love. Why not try writing something in that area. Do you write historical? Well, what about historical mysteries? Or fantasy? Many fantasies are set in medieval-like worlds. Do you write paranormal? Well, what about urban fantasy or steampunk?
Then there’s always the self-publishing alternative. You no longer need to wait for NY to call. You have a viable route to get your work out there (Just do your homework and get professionals to help you along the way, please.).
Look, I’m not telling you it’s easy. This business is heart-breaking. I was first published in historical romances. I wrote seven under contract, orphaned, agent left the business, whatever. I had lovely reviews but never broke through. So I changed and wrote paranormal romance. New contract, new name. Reviews were good. Orphaned again, agent issues again, whatever. I have been able to put my entire backlist up as ebooks and have published three original books by myself, and a short story collection of tales that frightened my husband. My latest career move is into straight fantasy, and I’m working on a novel in collaboration with my daughter.
Writing is what I do. I have a proven track record, but no real fame. That’s okay. Don’t count me out yet. I’m still writing (perseverance) and I plan to continue in the foreseeable future. Just this week I heard cozy mysteries were making a comeback. I love cozy mysteries. Hmmm. Gives me yet another avenue to explore. I can bend. I can move. I can touch my toes in more than one way.
–Gabi
Gabi Stevens latest work is THE STONE KEY, a self-published time travel novel about a kick-ass heroine who can’t get home to the middle-ages unless she finds an ancient artifact. Too bad the one man who can help her doesn’t believe in magic and such nonsense. She is currently working on building a fantasy career, while still pursuing the romances she loves. You can find her at www.GabiStevens.com and on Facebook and Twitter.
I laughed at your “Giving up is easy, and, if you can, I highly recommend it.” So true! You are so right about the importance of flexibility. And fortunately for us, these days, we have so many more things we can try with our writing. I really feel I learn so much from writing in different genres – even if sometimes it doesn’t quite work!
I believe in the strength of laughter, and I’m thrilled I got a chuckle out of you. A laugh is the first sign that you’re conquering whatever you’re facing. Thanks for reading for getting what I was trying to say.
–Gabi