The good news is that becoming an author nowadays is easier than ever! The bad news is becoming an author is easier than ever!
Is that a contradiction? Yes and no. The reason why it is good is because anybody, and I mean anybody with a manuscript and Internet access can publish and sell books online. The obvious consequence, or bad thing, is that Amazon now has about 5million e-books for sale. Yes..you read right, this is not a typo…approximately 5 million e-books!
So, what’s wrong with that?
Well, imagine walking into a bookstore that offers 5 million books! Where to start? Even if the customer is only looking for a certain genre, he will still be inundated with so many choices! Besides that, no human on earth has a lifespan long enough to read all the books ever printed. So, how does an author go about getting himself noticed so he can sell his wares?
That is not an easy task, nor is the answer simple. I have spent years studying and reading books from publishing-gurus on how to become a successful author. (Funny thing is, some of these self-help-gurus can barely sell their own books).
Why then, do we authors persist in writing books when the market is so over-saturated with a gazillion books? Simple answer:
Because we LOVE telling stories.
We LOVE writing.
We LOVE it when people read our stories.
We LOVE the positive feedback from our readers (and yes, even some negative feedback helps us to be better writers).
Did you notice how many times I used the word LOVE? That’s the main reason I write.
I LOVE IT!
I have sold thousands of my books, no, not millions, thousands. Would I like to do better? What author wouldn’t? It would be nice to sell millions. Somebody has to, right? Why not me? So I persist in what I LOVE and hope someday that millions will LOVE my books.
Alex Zabala is currently writing his new book The Secret of La Danta.
He is also the author of:
-Treasure of the Mayan King
-The Mind Games of Dr. Sova
-The Golden Scepter
-Chauncy Rollock Chronicles