How I Found The Write Path - Carrie Butler's Bloghop

Writing pal Carrie Butler is hosting a 
clever bloghop about authors and our reflections on our writing journey.  Participants are charged with writing a letter to our beginner-writer selves, advising the 'green' us and telling us how it will go.  With the author's approval and PK Hrezo's help, Carrie plans to compile the entries into a e-book to encourage and inspire other writers.

Dear Melissa [redacted],

One day, you're going to wake up and decide you want to write a book, just 'to see if you can do it.' (You've always loved a challenge.) You'll write one, all right, but it'll be crap. Well...not total crap, after a few revisions, but close enough. Luckily, a published author friend of the family will kindly-but-boldly tell you the truth and point you in the right direction.

On your three-year quest for improvement, grumbling about the snobbish rules of fiction all the way, you'll meet aspiring author Carrie Butler. She'll suffer through your first WIP and still be loyal enough to stick around. Good thing, because the two of you will become friends and the knowledge and skills you gain from merely being in her presence will fast-track you to publication, without making a total fool of yourself.

You'll learn to accept criticism well and learn to give it well, too—not an easy task on either end. And you'll steadily improve your craft. After hearing countless tales of query woes and small pub nightmares, you’ll shun tradition and go your own way. 

Was there ever any doubt? You’re too much of a realist and a control freak to choose anything else.

You'll also get drop-kicked into the social media scene by your tormentor, instead of waiting too long like you would have done if left to your own devices. You'll be forced to choose an author name fast, and you'll impulsively decide to go with a pen name. That turns out to be a clever marketing move, though, because the extinct surname you swap for your own has no competition. You'll rise to the top of Google (and Amazon) searches from day one.

After working more hours than at your regular job, sacrificing family time, and polishing your story for over two years, you’ll send your first book baby out into the world and enjoy your fifteen minutes of fame. Twenty-four hours, more like. Then, as you sit in the post-pub rubble of fallen confetti, dwindling comments, and back-to-zero sales, you’ll realize a writing career is a marathon, not a sprint. Your race has only begun.

-   Melissa Maygrove, author of Come Back

www.melissamaygrove.com

You may include this entry in the e-book compilation 

without providing me any royalties or other compensation.

There's a postscript to this story.

P.S. As part of your marketing plan, you'll sign up with a book tour company for a release day event. About two weeks before d-day, that deal will fall through. In a desperate, last-minute scramble for promo, you'll schedule an ad with Digital Book Today. By the time the ad goes live, you'll barely be able to pull yourself out of the post-pub blues to pay attention. 

And that's when it will happen.

In a curious mix of hard work and some kind of freakin perfect storm, your sales skyrocket. In a matter of hours, you'll recoup your publishing costs, make a tidy profit, and your precious little book will hit the Amazon Kindle Top 10 for Historical Romance and #1 (#1, baby!) in Western Romance—and stay there for the entire weekend.

So don't give up. Believe it or not, you'll be a bestselling author on Amazon one day.

Before I go, I'd like to give a shout-out to writing buddy Carol Kilgore who's mentioning my new release on her blog today. Thanks, Carol!

If you've never read any of Carol's books, you're missing out. She's a talented writer. :)

Today is the last day to enter my giveaway.
Hurry! You only have until midnight CDT!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winners will be announced on Wednesday, May 21st.