I recently read an essay by an author who earned out her $20,000 advance in two years, which is amazing. What does that mean? They paid her a $20,000 advance when the book was sold to a traditional press, which meant she received no royalties until her advance earned itself out with sales. She did it. A lot of writers don’t, by the way.

https://electricliterature.com/my-book-earned-out-in-two-years-and-nothing-happened/

The problem is, she thought in doing that she would have done something. She would have become a household name and become someone that agents and editors were interested in for subsequent books. In fact, nothing happened. It was nothing but a spreadsheet note on someone’s computer ledger at the publishing house.

Nobody, and I mean, nobody, is going to open doors for you. Few things in this business just happen without you having paved the way for it to happen. Opportunity happens to those who are fighting to be there when it happens. In this author’s case, she busted her butt to sell 11,000 books with a self-imposed goal of two years to earn out the $20,000. In the end, hoping someone would applaud her and and she’d somehow earn a reward. Nobody cared.

This is a business that is always looking for the next book, the next deal, the next bestseller. To think someone is going to pat you on the back very much for working hard is flawed thinking. The bottom line is you have to love this work…this business. You have to love the writing and the publishing, whether or not you break records or win awards.

The people who make millions and sell in the hundreds of thousands are oddities and rare. But they didn’t write books for the millions. They wrote for the enjoyment. And they would have written with or without the awards. Nobody writes FOR these accolades. They just write.

In my opinion, you write because you love it. If you write for the money, that’s a shame. Sure, the money is nice, but if there’s any profession that tests the question, “What would you want to do even if you didn’t get paid?” . . . writing is it.

But you know what? It’s only those people who adore writing, adore improving, adore advancing their skills in spite of not getting paid. . . who eventually get paid. If you learn nothing else about this profession, doing it half-assed gets you absolutely nowhere. The world can tell if this isn’t a passion for you.