I am starting to learn how hard it is to be a published author. Self-published or traditional. I know, you all are playing your tiny violins for me right? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret it in any way, but there is a distinct difference between this art medium and all others that I have participated in. Feedback for your work comes at a dreadfully slow pace unless you are the likes of J.K. Rowling and everyone is clamoring to have their own spin on your latest novel and read your book the second it is published.

For the rest of us we publish a book and then we wait. Or maybe you do what I have been doing: wait, refresh your browser, remind yourself that you should be writing, check Goodreads, write 500 words, look at all your sales numbers, see if anyone has left an Amazon review yet, then remind myself again that I’m supposed to be writing. In other words I am the victim of my own obsessive compulsive nature with no one to stop me! Gah!

My advice to any writer in my shoes is to do what I have been trying to do which is relish in the small victories. Try and limit yourself to checking sales data only once or twice a day (who am I kidding right). And remind yourself that the friends and family who are not calling to congratulate you never called you before, so it’s not that they hate your book, they are just being the way they usually are.

Today my minor victory was getting my KDP sales report and seeing that I had two sales in countries (don’t know which ones) that earn me lower royalties. You may think making less would be a bad thing, but no! It means I had two international sales! Whoot!

“Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.” ~ Louis L’Amour