Jeff Goins wrote recently of his idea on what it takes to be a real writer. His answer, is to call yourself one. I happen to agree. If you write and want to call yourself a writer, why not. I called myself a baseball player in Little League and a football player when I played in college. Was I ready for the majors or the NFL, sadly no. I wrote my first story when I was six or seven, and a great story it was, and have been dabbling in writing, first part now full time, ever since. Over the past forty plus years I have published in newspapers, magazines, a state publication and a travelogue, Online I have been published on cooking sites, coaching sites, western sites, mysteries, and travel sites. How much money did I make? Not much.
I have also written nine partial books, dozens of short stories, seven complete book of which I have published four. I call myself a writer. When I am speaking to groups I tell them I am a writer but not a famous or a rich one. I also tell people that if they want to be a writer to be rich and famous that those are the wrong reasons.
I like to write and like to read and I like to read about writing but am not a marketer. Not by any stretch of my imagination. I have very little knowledge of social media, know nothing about SEO, and am woefully behind in my ability to self-promote – not my style.
If you are
interested in SEO marketing and in really getting out and selling through
social media or need a lot of information on Indy writing check out Greg Strandberg, great stuff a couple of times a week and always entertaining. But
for me, all of my promotion is done by word of mouth, on twitter and Google +, not
much at all.
So I continue
on as a writer and a happy one, celebrating each sale as if I am James
Patterson or Steven King selling another million. Don’t take
this wrong, I am not complaining, I am happy with my sales, would love to sell
more but I really am in it for the story. With that said I will have three books
coming out in the next year. I will be doing all of my minuscule promotions
right here and on Twitter.
If you write
it doesn’t matter if you call yourself a writer, scribbler or author, I salute
you and happy writing or write on dudes - something like that.
Summer book presentation - that's me with the good looking legs
