Throughout my life, whatever job I was working at, there was always someone there to tell me, perhaps to comfort me when I felt like I was getting nowhere in my position, that I had to “pay my dues”. Translated that meant, just be happy with the job you have, don’t rock the boat, don’t whine about your low salary, etc. In other words, things would work out, it was just going to take time. It also meant, to me, that I still had a lot to learn in whatever job I was holding.

Well, I’ve been in the writing game for many years now as a self-published author and very recently I’ve noticed that for a lot of people, there is no waiting, no need to learn any more, no need to “pay your dues”. Whether your novel is destined for greatness or just a run of the mill sort of book, it seems the newly written, barely out of their from print-to-cursive diapers, are getting all the attention these days. For example, the Today Show ONLY features debut authors in their monthly book club. Now I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to spend my time reading a 300-400 page novel, I want to learn something new. I know looking back at my own debut novel, I’ve learned so much over the past years that has made me a much better writer. I don’t want to wade through all the errors that are likely to appear in a first novel by an unknown.

Like the woman who whined on social media because no one (or was it just a couple of people, to whom she should have been grateful) came to her book signing- get over yourself! We’ve ALL been there. We’ve ALL spent hours preparing for an event where absolutely no one showed up, despite our efforts to advertise and prepare. Am I bitter about the situation? A little. But since I’ve been doing this for many years now, you do get over it (if you don’t and can’t, perhaps you should choose a different, less critical, type of career) and just keep doing what you love and that is writing. And hope that my next novel will find its way to a larger group of readers who appreciate and can find inspiration in what I’ve spent years learning. And that is to be a better writer.