When Things Go Not As Planned, Be Careful Who You Blame

This is a concept I have always pushed while working in education. It was something I observed early on in my teaching. When things go wrong in a classroom, teachers will often blame the books, the staff, the students, or the parents. The same goes for the students and parents. When grades were not what they wanted, it was always the teacher's fault or something the school did. What is amazing here, is that not one looks within.

Let me first say, that yes, all of these other factors in the school system COULD be the blame. But... these are just some of the variables. 

When I teach a lesson and things go poorly, I always look at ALL of the variables in the class: The student, the curriculum, the environment, and yes - me. 

I bring this up because I see far too many authors complaining about royalties, lack of sales, lack of interest on the part of agents or editors... the list is endless. In all of these cases authors will throw blame and accuse everyone else of things not going right with their writing. 

But never look to their own contributions. 

If you are not seeing sales for your books - what are you doing?

If you do not like the cover of your book that the editors put together - what are you doing?

If you get nothing but rejections for your books - could it be your writing?

Successful authors look for solutions. They don't take the time to place blame.

Author have a lot of control over their careers, and I am not just talking about authors who self publish. Even if you don't have an agent to help you out, you have a lot of things YOU can do to see that success you want. 

It just take thinking outside of the box and being proactive. Ask for what you want. Show solutions. Provide answers to questions people want. 

Some of my top authors do just this. When they make a proposal for a new project and the editors come back a bit wishy washy about it, they demonstrate how it can be done. AND THEY ARE SUCCESSFUL.

When one of my latest sales from new Love Inspired Historical Author Elizabeth Rowan presented a proposal, they came back with a no. Could she have quit right here and complained, "Well it is their loss!"???? Yes, she could have. Instead. she found a solution and is now (at the time of writing this 50% of the say through a book we sold on proposal). She got what she wanted because she was persistent, clear, new what she wanted and, more importantly, FOUND A SOLUTION.

What about you?