I'm overjoyed to announce that Eve Langlais is our guest blogger! Many authors have gotten excited about this theme (books we love that don't sell, books we don't love that do...) and I'm so glad Eve Langlais is one of them.
Now, over to this week's guest, Eve Langlais:
I think every author has written a story they absolutely loved. It’s easy to know the one because it
practically writes itself. You can’t type fast enough. You become totally engrossed in the characters and
plot. When you finally do force yourself away from the keyboard, your legs wobble like a newborn colt
and your butt takes an hour to get feeling back—and your poor chair will never be the same. You finish
the masterpiece with a happy smile. You edit it and for once, you don’t hate it. Your editors love it. Your
beta readers gush it’s the best thing you’ve ever written. You think you’ve finally written ‘THE ONE’, the
one that will get readers so pumped they won’t be able to help but shout about it from the rooftops.
It’s the story that will make you a New York Times bestseller, get you on USA today, and make you a
household name.
Pleased with your best work, you have an awesome cover designed. You have it rigorously edited.
You format the hell out of it. It needs to be perfect. You set a release date and pump its coming, even
spending on marketing and blog tours because this is ‘The One’.
Nerves are aflutter and you can’t concentrate as release day arrives. Your baby, your best story ever
launches, and you get the first day flurry of sales from your wonderful fans. It climbs the ranks. You bite
your nails as you watch. “Come on. Higher. Move higher. Hit that Amazon top fifty”. You pray. You guzzle
coffee—with a shot of something alcoholic to steady your frayed nerves. You refresh the stats. You get
nothing done as you wait for the reviews to come in. And then your heart sinks along with your ranking.
After those first few days, it stops selling. You get a few rave reviews, but even more low ones. People
just don’t like it. The story you loved and poured all your hope into is a dud.
You are crushed. You doubt yourself. You wonder if you’ve lost your ability to write. You worry you’ll
never manage to create something decent again. Depression hits—and chips become in danger of
extinction.
And then, you get an email, or a facebook message.
“I love your story. Please tell me you’re going to write a sequel.”
It’s only one person. One person who loved it. Just one. And yet, that one reader gives you back the
faith. Reminds you that taste is subjective. They give you the courage to sit your ass back down at your
desk and write. The words come, you don’t know if they’re good or bad, but hey, it’s got werewolves. Or
cyborgs. Or whatever else you love. Because no matter what, you are a writer, and in the end, it’s not
always the number of copies sold that matter, but the need to put the stories in your head into words.
Words the world can read, love ‘em or hate ‘em.
Website:
http://www.evelanglais.com
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/eve.langlais.98
Twitter: @evelanglais
