We have all heard the age-old adage: Failure teaches you more than success.
That doesn’t mean it hurts any less to climb out of the mud and keep going.
It will always hurt to fall, but it hurts more to stay down.
I always felt a twinge of pain whenever someone spouted some inspirational bull while I was trying to wallow in self-pity from a fail; so, I won’t get preachy. I will just tell you that I have failed so many times, I could be a Ph. D in Fail.
Now, I have this opportunity to share with you my most recent fail.
I trusted an unscrupulous publisher!
I put my dreams in a basket and sent it via email with star-crossed eyes – I was blinded by the light of my future.
I’ve been writing this book for *YEARS*. I visited all the websites. Learned everything I could. Rewrote the book an astonishing amount of times and – FINALLY, I was ready.
I wasn’t just ready – I was sick of this book
I couldn’t move on until it was out.
Every single fear screamed from the formerly-small voice in the back of my head: “You aren’t good enough!” “You will never succeed” “This is too hard!” And, “No one will ever like this garbage”
I fought these anxiety-ridden, deep-seeded insecurities and decided to lobby public opinion of my masterpiece.
SUCCESS!
In November 2018, I joined the small percent of people who fully funded a kickstarter campaign. (Shout-out to David Ellis – a wonderful writer I met online with a heart of gold and Matt Salo – who showed up out of the blue and contributed greatly to this success)
I was on cloud 9!
My novel was worthy!
I was even working with a publisher and I felt for the first time in my life that I was going to make it!
I’m finally going to achieve my dreams! There is little in life that compares to the euphoria of a completed project and acceptance of said project.
I signed a contract, I imagined the good life. I didn’t have unrealistic expectations. I have seen what it takes to “Make It” and I know there was a lot of work ahead of me. Still, it was the first step in the process. I have hundreds more novels to publish.
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The decent from cloud 9 was slower than I want to admit.
I tell myself: I was just being patient – I am an obnoxiously patient person.
The contract said he would give weekly updates and would have it published right away.
The first week passed, I just figured it took a while to edit. However, I let the weeks pass without question. I didn’t want to be a burden. I was positive and even sang their praise. I shunned the nay-sayers. I dedicated myself to this mistake.
I switched from excitement to insecurity to frustration. It wasn’t until March of 2019 that I emailed them. Apparently, sickness was the excuse. I bought it. I was sunk, and I didn’t know it.
I had time to write now though. Finally, I freed myself of the initial obligation and was free to my other works. Despite everything, I am going to succeed!
Much to my chagrin, I email in June to discover the publisher I signed with, is less than ethical in his publications. Now, I must enlist lawyers to ensure he did not do anything more unscrupulous. While my lawyer works to put this publisher in his place – I now am back where I started – only with less money than I had and a severe injury to my pride.
Despite this, I will come out on top.
Failure is a bigger part of success than we ever want to admit. Without failure, there is no learning, no leaping and no pride in how far we have come!
I keep repeating that as I query, call, and contact every publisher I can find.
At least I can tell everyone this, so no one has to repeat the mistakes I’ve made – and it gives me opportunity to give advice and comfort to those who need it.
I learned and so can you.
If you have been scammed by a publisher, editor, writer or other unscrupulous wordsmith slinger – email us. We now have the tools to turn this situation better!
We *want* to turn the writing world around. It is a driving desire to see novel writers be among the social elite with rock stars, and actors – even though writers are a selective breed and probably wouldn’t want that fame. We want writing to be cool again.
Let us know: Admin@daeedreamz.com
Or, contact me personally: Luckysnews@hotmail.com or 612) 217-4065
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