Ran Across this Blog Called "The Self-Made Writer"

I found this blog through Google Plus and a couple of writer's links that I'm a part of. This one come via Deb Vanasse and her blog The Self-Made Writer. This is Ten Truths You Need to Know about Publishing, No Matter How You Do It (see here).

It's a good looking blog and I look forward to tooling around and finding out more about it, but this post intrigued me and I read it through. Some of the stats were a tad tough to hear, but based on her accompanying image that says "Better to be slapped with the truth than kissed with a lie" I'm thinking she knew some of the numbers would be startling to most writers. Still, some great nuggets of information for the aspiring author. My favorites?

There’s a content flood, and it’s not going to recede anytime soon. As reported by author William Dietrich in a piece published by the Huffington Post, an estimated 130 million books have been published throughout human history. That number is growing by the minute—and with e-books, titles stay in print forever. Bottom line: the supply of books far exceeds the demand.

This bullet goes hand-in-hand with some of the stats she comments on in other bullets. I'm stunned when I go online to find a book to read every now and then. The number of books out there is staggering. If you don't know what you're looking for you're going to get lost. I love the line; "The supply of books far exceeds the demands."

Wonderful books are overlooked, and some that aren’t so wonderful sell more than anyone could have predicted. As they say, there’s no accounting for taste. But if sales are steady, and if a title stays in print long enough and is popular within a niche market, it may in the end outsell certain flash-and-burn bestsellers.

This bullet made me think of a conversation I had with my neighbors on our back patio after a dinner party. It was about the time that 50 Shades of Grey the movie had just come out. Turns out several of us tried to read the book and among the four that tried, not any of us got through the first few pages and wanted to read on. Yet, that was a very successful book. Key words "popular within a niche market." It's finding that niche then development the foot hold into something more that's the goal.

Write what you love and make each book the best it can be. That’s the one aspect of publishing over which you have complete control.

Finally, and this goes directly against what I wrote a few years ago about why I writer (see here). Just write what you want and do it as well as you can. Be proud of what you wrote and hope that others enjoy it as much as you do.

Deb has some good points and despite being slapped with the truth, it's good stuff to know and helps to accentuate the positives. I look forward to more posts from her.