But what if no one is reading at all?

There are many ways for an author's writings to get in front of the eyes of readers.

Unfortunately, there are more ways that those same printed words fail to be seen by others.

In last week's blog entry, I wrote about the times that some passage or character is researched and written about, but ultimately deleted from the author's final product. My personal conclusion was that sometimes this effort is still worthwhile and helps make the story a better product.

This week, I want to look at an even more frustrating situation, and consider if the effort is still beneficial.

What if no one is reading what you write?

Maybe not literally "no one", though sometimes that happens, too. But what if the blog posts, the articles, the novels, are only reaching 5% of the audience that you hoped for?

I've been there. Not with my two novels, fortunately. Both The Pride of Central and The Jewelry of Grace have sold well beyond what I originally hoped, though for context, it should be noted I can be a bit of a pessimist. Regardless, I can't complain how things have turned out with my fiction writing.

However, when I was still a sportswriter for the Harrisburg Patriot-News, I would encounter this frustration. I would post stories from big events, and sometimes, get pitiful results.

Once, I covered the Cumberland Valley girls' basketball team win the Pennsylvania state championship*. It's a large school district with a big following, and I had been covering them all season. One other Patriot-News writer was covering the final game with me. We each wrote a story about a different aspect of the game. An hour after our stories were posted, we checked our online views.

The other writer had several thousand. I had three: myself, my wife and my mother.

Ouch.

Over the next couple of days my story did get several hundred views, but it never caught up with what the other writer did in that first hour. I wasn't angry, but confused. Had I done something wrong?

And it's still happening from time to time. This blog has been averaging 5-6 views per entry over the last couple of months. It was never overwhelming - I think my top author blog is only around 70 views - but these more recent results can be underwhelming.

So, is it worth it? Was it worth it for the Patriot-News to send me to that game? Is it worth it for me to continue this blog? Should we keep going when we've lost our audience?

Like last week, it's not an absolute answer. But I would say the answer is usually, "yes".

Writing this blog still serves a purpose even if no one reads it at all. Local sports coverage is happening less and less, so I'm getting fewer opportunities to freelance for newspapers. I finished The Jewelry of Grace almost a year ago, and will not start drafting my third book for a few more months.

This blog helps keep me sharp. It helps me to think and act like a writer. Baseball players don't need an audience for batting practice, but they do need batting practice to succeed. It may lack glamour, it may feel like nothing is being accomplished, but skills are being honed each time.

And sometimes, the extra work bears fruit, even if no one read the earlier material. Covering the state championships helped prepare me for other events later on in my career. For a couple years, I covered Team USA field hockey. That beat got me readers from across the country. Though I did not go in person, I was able to cover their run to fourth place in the World Cup, and had readers from both the East and West Coasts for each game and feature story. My coverage of that event and that team probably would have been of lower quality had I not covered the Cumberland Valley girls' basketball team.

I wish I could say each writing task is worth it. But I understand the frustration of an author who put ten years into a novel to wind up with eight sales. That may feel like wasted time and I don't feel comfortable contradicting someone in that kind of a situation.

But for most cases, I'd say, err on the side of writing something that few will see, instead of abandoning the craft when your audience is small. There's plenty of room in the concert hall for more. It just may take more time for everyone to find their way in. Until they do, keep tuning the music of your own story.

* - Cumberland Valley would go on to win three straight girls' basketball state championships. In case any of those players or coaches make their way here, I wanted to give them full credit.

Next week: Slow results