Writing Even When No One Is Reading
If you are an aspiring author, likely you are trying to find a way to be heard.
Maybe you are submitting essays to publications and only receiving rejections. Maybe you have finally started your blog yet no one leaves a comment. Or maybe you have just created your author Instagram account only to find it is more difficult to attract followers than you thought.
It can be lonely in this writing life. Waiting for a response to your query later. Waiting for a book deal. Waiting for acceptance or even acknowledgment of your dream to become an author.
It may feel lonely but you are not alone. There are hundreds of thousands (even millions) of people in this “tribe” of wanting their words to be read. It is a small percentage who win that lottery of both getting an agent and then, signing a book deal with one of the “Big 5” publishers (Hachette, Harper Collins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster). But because that is becoming an ever steeper mountain to climb, many writers are finding that small presses, hybrid publishing and self-publishing are better options.
In 2018 alone, 4 million new books were published (Bowker, October 2019 Report). Of that number, almost 1.7 million were self-published. That is a 40% increase over 2017 and a 263% increase since 2013.
Why? Because it has never been more difficult to get a book deal at the same time it has never been easier to publish you own book. While it may seem daunting to figure out how to get your 60,000 word manuscript off your laptop and into an eBook or paperback, it is something you can learn. You cannot control whether an agent answers your email or whether a publisher ever sends you a six-figure advance, but you can follow in the footsteps of the 1,677,781 authors who in 2018 got their own ISBN number and published their own book.
In 2016, I did just that. At first, it did feel overwhelming and I did have a lot to learn. I watched videos on self-publishing websites like IngramSpark and CreateSpace (now Kindle Direct Publishing). I went to conferences like Writing for Your Life and signed up for video courses. I bought my own ISBN number on Bowker so that I could finally hold my first book in my hands. After six years of writing and a lot of rejection, I finally finished what I set out to do—become a published author. And it felt amazing.
It will for you as well. You don’t have to wait for a traditional publisher to grant you a book deal to make you an author. You can write and publish whether you ever are noticed by the Big 5 or not.
In 1988, long before self-publishing was as accessible as it is today, an aspiring author had 900 copies of his book published through a small Brazilian press. The book did not take off but the writer continued to create and publish even though no one was reading. Eventually, he did get a book deal with Harper Collins. In 1994, they re-published that same book which became an international bestseller selling an estimated 65 million copies. The book and the author? The Alchemist by Paul Coelho. His work has since been published in 170 countries and translated into 83 languages.
Pat Schneider was a masterful writing teacher and author of, How the Light Gets In: Writing as a Spiritual Practice. She passed away in August 2020 but her legacy of encouraging writers left a lasting ripple effect. Pat taught people to write for the transformative power that words have for themselves as well as their potential readers:
“If you write the truth, you will change the world. If you write privately, you will change your own inner world and that changes the outer world.”
So keep writing for yourself—even if it feels like no one is reading. Just by writing, you will be changing your inner world. And when you are ready, publish that book—even without a book deal.
Like Coelho, your book may go unnoticed, but eventually, it might change the world.
-Kathy
Since 2016, Kathy Izard has published three books (two memoir and one illustrated book for kids) in the US and Germany with over 20,000 copies sold worldwide. Learn more kathyizard.com or take a workshop with her on womenfaithstory.com