Stick To Your Dreams

We have all been listening to the story of Diane Nyad. Over and over she has made the same comments that I have to 100% agree with. Stick to your dreams and you can pretty much do anything. I think this statement couldn't be any more true. And yet, I find far too often, people tend to lose sight of those dreams and goals. When things get tough, when they run into a challenge, more often than not people tend to "change" those goals. Oh, they might say things like "modifying" but in the end, what they are really doing is losing sight of that goal.

I think in recent years, publishing has presented authors a lot of "distractions" and "temptations" to lure people away from those goals. The offers of immediate gratification and supposed money are making many authors forget what they wanted to do all along with their writing.

The simple truth is this... If you want to write and publish books with a company such as Random House, Penguin, Harlequin or any of the number of other traditional publishers then stick to your goal. Keep working toward it. Yes, there will be plenty of offers of "I can have your book on the shelf in 48 hours." or "You know you will ALWAYS make more with self-publishing." Are these viable options? You better believe it! Can you make money with these approaches? You better believe it! Is the market making some shifts in different directions right now? You better believe it.

But...

If those were not your dreams and goals, I ask you why you are ditching those dreams?

Look, publishing and being a successful writer takes time. It takes hard work. But it also takes a passion and a desire to want to do something good. We have to remember why we started writing in the first place. We loved the thrill of creating characters and telling stories. But there is a pretty good bet that we also dreamed one day of seeing our book on that front table of Borders (RIP) and Barnes and Noble. We dreamed of book signing with a line of people just wanting to meet the person who told them a story they could truly connect with.

Please understand, I do believe 100% in all of the different approaches to publishing. Digital, self-pub, independent press, traditional publishing, heck if you want to, papyrus. I am someone who wants to see more people with books in their hands reading. I want to see people with their tablets and stories on them and not Angry Birds or Facebook.

If your goal is to be the top self-published author out there, then go for it.
If your goal is to be the top independently published author out there, then go for it.
If your goal is to be traditionally published, then go for it.
If your goal is to be the digital king or queen of publishing, then rock on!

Don't get distracted by those offers of immediate gratification.