A Lesson In Humility

A lesson in Humility

This time last year, I was bounding around in full health, something I’ve taken for granted for most of my life and believed, due to my fit and healthy lifestyle, I was protected from the ailments that beset everyone else. “Finding Carla” had been published a few months earlier and, although I had originally written the story for my own satisfaction, having got this far I felt I should do everything to get it “out there.” I allocated a six month window to promote my book, virtually on a full time basis – getting excellent assistance from professional marketers, submitting articles to newspapers and magazines, attending book clubs, craft and trade shows, endless social media posts, guest speaking, asking bookshops to stock my book and most importantly, talking to people about my book. Every time an article was published or I made a sale, it warmed the cockles of my heart and every compliment was gratefully received. The result was my sales went beyond what a first time author can expect, yet it doesn’t pay the bills. As this was not my motivation, I happily began writing a sequel, something I’d never dreamt I could do when I embarked on the first book. It was going really well, then disaster struck…

I had an operation on my writing hand to remove what, thankfully, turned out to be a non-cancerous lipoma in November and here I am, four months later, still unable to write more than a sentence, though I can type for short periods of time. This period of inactivity brought me crashing down to earth and made me realise that I have taken my health for granted all these years. And what of it?

As I approach my 65th birthday, I realise that if I’m lucky I’ve got twenty good years ahead of me, which doesn’t sound like much! The next thing I realised is I don’t want to spend time doing things I don’t enjoy unless I have to. And here’s the thing…I did not enjoy marketing my book any more than most authors do. However, my main motivation was never to sell books, it was to write them and with this knowledge, I have decided to focus on what I love – writing books and travelling with my family.

I am currently in the late editing stages of my second book before I submit it to my editor. It is a slow process as I can only manage a few pages each day. I have decided that I will market my book in the period leading up to and for a short period after publishing and keep my fingers crossed that those of you who read and enjoyed “Finding Carla” will purchase the sequel and I can capture a few more readers along the way!

Just because this is my decision, don’t let it put you off marketing your book; there is still a lot to gain from it. If this was my 40 year old self or younger, I would be chasing every avenue, putting my heart and soul into doing the best I can for my books, just as I always chased everything I did in my former life.

Here’s to following our dreams!