This was the scene at a local library not too long ago. I was asked to come and promote my new book, Nine Ways to Make Awesome Kids. I had visited this library for a similar event for my first book. It was well attended and generated some great conversation. For this one, no one showed.
This is not the only failure I'm realizing with this project. To date, it has only sold three copies on Amazon and zero copies on Barnes & Noble. I have given away ten copies. The Facebook page I created to stimulate conversation around the book was shuttered very quickly due to low participation, despite paying for boosts and ads. I even created a wide variety of Reels to share on Instagram and Facebook. My hopes of creating a podcast around the book also faded when I could not find a suitable co-host. The gears just never got turning.
I might accept these failures, but I am not happy with them. I had two offers to publish this book, but I declined them because I did not want to pay a share of the investment to get it off the ground. Maybe I should have, but I wanted to keep full control of my work. So why am I telling you this?
Writing a book is hard folks. When you have something to say and start outlining a project, you go into a strange state of flow that you never experienced when being forced to write in high school or college. You know, back when you desperately just tried to get to the word count for a paper. This is different. You might take an hour to write one sentence or spend an hour writing ten pages. It's hard to explain the self doubt you may have over one single line but you will stare at it endlessly until it makes sense.
There is really no money in this, unless you write for a living. I do not, but I feel I have a set of experiences and a perspective that I think people might want to read about. So when I see that the book is not selling, I am only discouraged that the message I'm sending is not being received. You want the work you put in to be read and taken to task. This is how ideas are exchanged and new ideas take hold. I truly feel Nine Ways has a place in our current state of parenting and teaching. Not everyone feels the same it seems.
I've already been asked if I plan on writing another book. My response is that I am not even thinking about it. To many, it seems like writing a book is like running a marathon. Once it's done, it is done and then you stand back and say, "Look what I did." This is not the case for authors. You want the work to be read and to endure and when it's not, you can't help breaking it down and being critical of yourself.
Failure is part of this game and I will lick my wounds and go on. The idea is to always fail forward towards something better and I will keep trying to do that. The good news is that I have a day job to fall back on.
You can purchase Nine Ways at https://a.co/d/8MwyWaS
You can purchase Leaving Poverty at https://a.co/d/bfxuWb3
