Authors’ Disappointments

Some Bitter Disappointments Suffered by Authors

These reflections on the typical disappointments that come with being a writer are not a complaint, nor a plea for sympathy. They are observations drawn from more than fifteen years of independent publishing and conversations with other writers who report similar experiences.

As you read this article, please bear in mind that not all writers suffer from any or all of these disappointments. Nevertheless, some are much more common than others, and none of them apply only to me.

Disappointments Close to the Heart

The first is lack of support from family and friends. In my experience, most authors suffer this disappointment. First of all, we have to assume that the writer has some talent. I wouldn’t expect my friends and family to encourage me, if I were a poor writer. The facts in my case are that my friends and family have been telling me for more than sixty years that they enjoy getting letters from me.

In the last, fifteen years, I have written sixty-odd books, and they all receive compliments from all around the world, except one small, precise area – my home town. I could go even further to say the whole of Wales, but I do have good reviews from Welsh readers – no bad ones.

Being Welsh, I know that it is easier to pull teeth with chopsticks than get a compliment from a Welsh person, but still. Literature is a source of national pride, isn’t it? What would we think of ourselves, and what would other nations think of us, if no Welsh people wrote stories?

Friends and Relatives

I feel really let down by my friends and family. They should have helped promote me to their friends, who presumably also live in Wales, and so the popularity of my books would have started in my home town, spread across Wales and into other countries.

Like I said earlier, this is a very common issue among writers. At least one of my older relatives was downright catty about the one book she read.

A mor precise example is, as a compliment, I used the names of two of my friends for the names of lead characters in two of my books. One of them admitted that he had never read the book, and the other was obviously lying when he said that he had read a pirated copy. However, even if he had been telling the truth, that he had bought a pirated copy is not something that a writer wants to hear!

Wouldn’t ‘support’ like this hurt you?

Reach

The biggest reason why most independent authors don’t sell many books is that so few readers know that they exist. After having written a few books, and receiving a wad of reviews over the months, most writers get a feel for whether they are doing a good job or not. I know that many drop out, so it is fairly safe to assume that the long-stayers are pretty good writers. I have one series of seven novels totalling about 750,000 words. Readers sometimes buy the whole series in one hit. This would almost certainly be the result of a personal recommendation from a friend, but imagine if that person had written a review and told his or her friend.

I venture to say that all indie authors suffer from a lack of reach, and that is mostly because readers are too lazy to write reviews. When I started writing novels fifteen years ago, it was common for a reader to leave a review – it was like an inclusive act. However, these days a review (good or bad) is a monthly occurrence. Why the cultural change in readers in general? Is it linked to the phenomenon that people don’t like receiving phone calls any more? People text, but don’t talk.

What do you think? Please leave a message in the comments below.