The Brass Ring for Indie Writers

richardlevesqueauthor March 10, 2016 Writing 0

Photo Credit: Raph. Clem

I don’t sell tons of books. Let me say that right up front in case you’re looking for one of those posts that promises something like:

Here’s The Key to Indie Author Success!!!

If that’s what you’re after, you can stop reading now. I will add that just about every one of those kinds of posts is either filled with the most generic advice you could get, or is a thinly disguised sales pitch for the author’s how-to-sell-a-million-books-in-a-month-without-trying series of lessons, downloads, etc. Sorry if it sounds cynical, but I’ve come to believe that the secret to selling a million books is getting other desperate writers to buy your book on how to sell a million books.

But I digress…

In a recent interview, I was asked what my “brass ring” is as an indie novelist. It’s a good question, and I answered pretty quickly, prefacing my response with “This might sound hokey, but…”

I then proceeded to explain that I already had the brass ring, that I feel it most firmly in my hand when I hear from readers who’ve enjoyed one of my books. I feel it when I see reviews or get emails from people who say they literally couldn’t put down Take Back Tomorrow, when someone reads The Somniscient late into the night and then is compelled to start reading again first thing in the morning, when people tell me they’ve been kept up until 3 o’clock in the morning because they couldn’t bear to stop reading, when someone who listens to audio books only in the car says she broke her rule and listened to LC Kane’s reading of The Girl at the End of the World throughout her day because she HAD to find out what happened next…

Those moments are absolutely golden.

I must add two things here:

I quickly followed my “aw shucks” response in the interview by saying that it would certainly be nice if what happened with The Martian were to happen to one of my books. If Ridley Scott were to come sniffing around my Amazon author page, I certainly wouldn’t turn him away. But that’s not a brass ring. It’s a golden one. And the chances of being struck by lightning are probably better. It’s fun to fantasize about, but if that were my goal as an indie writer, I’d be left feeling miserable most of the time.
Those golden moments don’t come often enough. They do come, but there are long stretches where I don’t get that kind of praise, where I don’t get any kind of praise, where my books don’t seem to get bought or even noticed. And during phases like that, it’s easy to feel a bit embittered at the apparent success of others. Before the bitterness freezes my soul, however, I usually force myself to think about the nice things people have said in the past, and it helps.

But the bigger question, I suppose, is “Why is that kind of praise so important?”

The answer has to do with my goals as a writer. While I wouldn’t turn down Martian-style dump trucks full of cash, I’m not in this to get rich. My day job is one I’m very happy with, and it affords me lots of time to work on my writing; it also provides more security than the fickle literary marketplace would. So I’m not looking for a boost up the ladder of success.

What I am looking for, what my primary goal as a writer is…is to entertain people with my stories and characters. I want people to miss the characters when the book is finished. I want people to say “just one more chapter” when they’ve already read longer than they had planned. I want people to be surprised by the endings and satisfied by the ride I’ve taken them on.

Fortunately, all of those things have happened, and my readers have been nice enough to either share the experience with me or post it in the reviews they leave for others.

So what’s the takeaway? If you enjoy a book–mine or anyone else’s–take a moment to let the rest of the world know. Your feedback just might be the thing that keeps that writer clicking away on the next book that keeps you awake far longer than you’d planned.

Better still…if you think about it, not everyone gets to grab the brass ring. But if you encourage your favorite writers and praise their books, you might just get to be the brass ring!

Thanks for reading.