As an indie writer, I have to forge and find my own way through the publishing world. I do not have a team of New York publicists, editors, and agents telling me what to do. There are plenty of bloggers who are more than happy to share their success stories and tell prospective writers how to sell books. As someone who has never sold more than 100 books I have no right to question their methods, but as a reader and author I admit am skeptical and cynical about every piece of advice I have read.
My all time pet peeve of writing advice is "writing a book that will be popular". Okay, I consider myself more of an artist. I don't write for profit, I write because I have an idea rolling around in my head, pounding at my skull trying to break out. Writing is a way to get rid of that idea and allow me a relief. When I first began writing My Not So Normal Life books, I did write because they fit into popular genres at the time. I wrote them because THEY DID NOT FIT INTO THE POPULAR BOOKS. I wrote female action books for young adults where romance was not the major plot point and the heroine didn't worry about her appearance or being popular. This was before Katniss Everdeen. Now my book fits more into the popular book genre than it did 10+years ago. But if I had only worked on something that had been popular back then my books would be outdated and no longer relevant. Yes, I sat on my books for a long time, but really I would much rather wait to release something I am proud of than to have written something purely to make money.
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