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Writers, do not let perfection get in the way of success!

7/24/2012

8 Comments

 
Author Kristen Lamb wrote a great post on her website entitled: How Self-Publishing has Helped All Writers–Welcome to the Revolution. You can click on the link to read it, but what caught my attention was a particular section where she discusses how many writers linger forever making their book more and more perfect, and how the self-publishing revolution is teaching writers that they should “let go.” She writes:

“One of the largest barriers to becoming a successful writer is trying to be a perfect writer.”

This is something that rang a bell with me because it is a thought I have been trying to convey in many of my posts. The plain and simple truth of self-publishing is that the vast majority of books will not be a success: at best they will have modest sales. Therefore, if your goal is to actually sell books, spending years and years writing one will just not cut it. The only business paradigm that makes sense in self-publishing for the average author is to build the “long tail.” What is that?

The long tail is the concept that you can derive a substantial amount of profit from selling items that don’t sell much as long as you sell enough of them. Imagine that you write two books a year (and nowadays many people will tell you that anything less than that is “slacking”). In five years you will have accumulated 10 books. If each book sells say 40 copies a year, then your ten books are selling a combined 400 copies per year. On the other hand if you write one book every 5 years and it also sells 40 copies a year… get my drift?

Another thing to remember is that the success of a book does not depend only on how good it is. Rewriting a book over and over to make it better will not necessarily make it sell more. The success of a book is part art and part voodoo. Nobody has a formula that works reliably. The reality, again, is that most books will not “catch on” and sell like hotcakes no matter how well written they are. Of course we hope that every now and then we will write a book that sells exceptionally well, and having this hope is fine. But the chances that this will happen will be increased if you write a large number of books.

Finally there are two more considerations. The first one is that each book that you write counts as advertisement that will make you better known among potential readers. The second is that if the tenth book you write hits the big time, your readers will want to read more. Having nine more books on your shelf for them to buy is a great advantage. On the other hand if you only have that one book you will have, as the surfers say, “missed the wave.”

So put all of the above together and what do we have?

Self-publishing favors the prolific writer.

And this goes back to what Kristen wrote. You are doing yourself a disservice by trying to be perfect. Yes you read that correctly. The important thing is for you is to put out those books. Do not, of course, interpret this as a license to be sloppy. Clearly your writing needs to have a certain level of competence, but the take home message is: don’t let perfection slow you down. This is even more justifiable if you publish e-books, which can easily be modified (in case a reader points out a mistake) and republished in no time at all.

For many the above is not easy. I myself tend to be one of those “perfectionists.” I get really annoyed when someone finds a mistake I missed. Couple this with the fact that I don’t write very fast and that I don’t have a lot of time for writing, and you see how this is a problem for me. But I am trying my best to be more imperfect because it’s the road to success!

Are you imperfect or trying your darnest to be imperfect? Please leave a comment and let us know.

                                   ***
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8 Comments
Matthew Chivers link
7/27/2012 05:48:49 am

Reading your blog really uplifts me Rolando, it really does.

I have been going through this "perfectionism" stuff in the last couple of months, mainly due to me getting better at writing as I progress, and then some critiques that gradually feed there ways back to me from what I have already self-published. I constantly want to make sure my books are the best, but at the same time, it never feels good enough.

I've recently re-published my works, filled with various improvements to grammar, spelling, punctuation, double words, missing words, and other bits and bobs - trouble is, I have gotten to a stage now where I think I've done just about enough to solve the problems that have been in my books... I think this goes back to one of your older posts though, that it does make one unhappy writing and self-publishing - because then it begins to feel more like something that is never right, sort of thing.

However, after reading this, and after getting all my updates done today for both the paperbacks and kindle - I feel a hell of a lot better about my books :)

So thank you buddy, your blog is awesome sauce :)

Reply
Rolando link
7/29/2012 01:47:38 pm

Thanks for your comment Matthew and I am glad you like my blog. The drive to be better is great. It keeps us trying to do our best. We just have to avoid getting carried away and have it become dead weight on our productivity.

Reply
Patricia Lynne link
7/30/2012 01:41:11 am

If a writer strives for perfection they will never be satisfied. I know I can always find something else to tweak, another read through and so on. It's a never ending cycle and at some point every writer just has to say Stop. It's done.

Reply
Rolando link
7/30/2012 08:45:08 am

Thanks for your comment. Like they say, "art is never finished, it is abandoned." We have to learn to abandon our art.

Reply
Jeri link
8/1/2012 04:13:06 am

As I've been drafting my novel, I think I've made every mistake I could make. So all the training and preparation in the world can never make up for one's first time at anything! I fight my perfectionist tendencies every step of the way. I know I have to give myself permission to write badly in order to get an entire draft finished, but it's such a struggle. As for self-publishing favoring the prolific writer, that weighs on my mind more and more all the time. A book a year seems like a snail's pace these days.

Reply
Rolando link
8/1/2012 10:56:00 am

I write the same way. I can't write and knowingly leave mistakes behind. I "have" to go back and correct them and re-read and re-write. In the end the issue is when we "let go" and put the stuff "out there." Kristen argues that self-publishing has made it easier for writers to do this. Thanks for your comment and good luck with your novel Jeri.

Reply
Lance link
8/23/2012 03:16:27 am

While I think the ePub revolution has provided a great opportunity for authors, I think its more important than ever for us to properly vet our work. This means feedback from friends, colleagues, editors, and reviewers. No piece of weiting is perfect, but we should strive to do the best work we can for our audience; otherwise we'll find ourselves with a limited audience and perhaps even an audience of one. Thanks! @lanceliot

Reply
Rolando link
9/17/2012 07:12:31 am

Sorry to have taken so long in approving your comment but it ended up in my spam folder. I agree with you, but I guess the issue is a matter of degree. How long do we allow ourselves to continue rewriting and editing our work? We have to learn to let go and move on.

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