Slow Results

Though life occasionally provides us with the scratch-off lottery ticket with the grand prize underneath the silver boxes, we usually have to wait for the results we want.

We may lose weight in the first week of a diet or exercise routine, but we won't lose the 25 pounds we are hoping for right away. The 401k provides some security the moment some money is deposited, but hopes for seven figures in the account will have to be delayed.

Success with one's writing is much the same way. It rarely comes quickly.

This was very much true for me with the release of The Jewelry of Grace. In the first two weeks, I had only a handful of sales. Remembering that the release was at the end of January 2021, when much of the country was still sitting in a shutdown, explains this. But I was still forced to show patience as I waited for sales to trickle in.

I am still promoting the novel, but I have seen an increase in sales in the late spring and early summer. Some authors may get a big spike in sales at the very beginning, but for many of us, and serious sales goal will take months or even years of patience.

But sales are not the only barometer of success. Simply getting your novel published is a success in and off itself (one that only about one percent of writers achieve). But this can take time, too.

I opted for the self-publishing route. That meant I had a quicker path to publication, but less professional help backing me up along the way.

For some writers, that isn't enough. They want to sign with a big, traditional publisher. But many authors have to try over and over again. Patience and endurance during a season of rejection letters are needed.

But slow results are not the same as no results. My early sales of The Jewelry of Grace were low numbers, but not zeros. And someone submitting to publishing houses is still getting something back with the rejection letters.

Someone who would publish the book is probably out there. The rejection may not be the result the writer was seeking, but it does allow the writer to narrow the search for the right publisher.

That may sound a little too optimistic if you're a writer who has accumulated dozens of rejections for your manuscript. But according to Literary Hub, all of these novels had dozens (sometimes more than 100) rejections before being printed:

Chicken Soup for the Soul

Carrie

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Still Alice

A Time to Kill

Early results were slow for each of those authors, but it paid off for all of them. I can't promise that it will happen for everyone who endures, but I can promise that patience will be needed if we wish triumph over a season of publishing droughts.

Next week: The Master and the Master Plan