I know someone very well who has tried, and failed, repeatedly, to make money writing on KDP. Why? Because he doesn’t actually want to earn any success, he expects instant and unlimited wealth and if he doesn’t get it, he turns to something else entirely.
It doesn’t work that way. He’s been told that it doesn’t work that way. His entire life, I have been telling him, my wife has been telling him, why he fails, yet he’s too lazy to do anything else.
Let’s consider this a cautionary tale.
Here’s another thing that is really starting to wear thin. Whenever an author does something, anything at all, everyone huddles around them and congratulates them for a job well done.
Guys, enough! It’s like saying “I managed to get out of bed this morning”, followed by a round of applause. Writers write. It’s what we do. Stop acting like managing to do something that you’re supposed to be doing anyhow is somehow magical!
This is another one of those things that, if you hang around on Reddit or amateur writer forums, you will run into near constantly. The second they get the feeling that someone is better than they are, they will demand that it can’t be so because… fee-fees!
And that’s just dumb.
I ran across a sign in the background on a woodworking video that said “Nobody Cares. Work Harder!” Just because I think it’s a pretty cool channel, go check out Shara Woodshop Diaries over on YouTube, but that’s not really what I’m getting at.
The simple fact is, no matter what you’re doing, it’s not about getting attention, it’s about doing your best. I’m mainly going to talk about it in relation to writing, but it’s just as applicable in everything else.
One of the first things that most professional writers, or even just experienced writers will tell amateurs is to hold yourself accountable. You don’t know how well you’re doing unless you have some means of measuring it objectively. That’s why most recommend a word count tracker for whatever project you’re working on and I’m going to tell you the same thing. If you want to improve, if you want to produce work, you need to know how you’re doing. Track your words.
