Hobby or Business-Creative Writing
Creating stories has always been a part of my life. My mother read to me and taught me to read when I was about three years old. I loved the stories of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and other fairy tale romances. I would sit for hours playing Barbie dolls, creating exciting stories of how Ken and Barbie fell in love. I would add drama by having Barbie or ken have an affair. I had no idea that I was preparing for a future as a writer.
For the most part, writing has been a hobby. It wasn’t until 2017 that I jumped into the world of self-publishing and put my first book out for the world to read. It did better than I ever expected and I went whole hog in to trying to establish myself as a self-published author. I wrote more books as I read everything I could find about how to become a six figure author.
Over two years later, I’m still struggling and part of me wants to give up and go back to the real world, but a bigger part of me wants to charge full steam ahead. I realized something that may make a big difference in how successful I become. I have still been treating this like a hobby, but expecting the results as if I were running a business. It’s no wonder that I’m not where I want to be.
If I want to make it to Amazon’s charts and the New York Times Best Seller’s List as an Indie-Author, I have to change the way I do things. Writing is no longer my hobby, my passion. It’s my business, and I have to start acting like it. What does that mean?
It means that I have to put my business in order. I have to stop spreading my self thin to make a few dollars. I have a decent product, but I know that I am capable of producing an excellent product that my customers will love and tell their friends about. I have to stop focusing on the small picture and look up to see what the big picture is and create a workable plan to get there.
I don’t expect it to be easy. Nothing worth having even comes with ease. I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work. It may be a business, but it’s still my dream and my creativity cannot be contained!
