Epic Publishing Failure

You don’t have to fail to succeed.

 

However, when you do fail, it’s not the end of the world. Learn from your mistakes and move forward.

 

Part 1

My Story, as a writer, began with an idea for an Epic story, and it nearly ended because of an Epic failure.

Several years ago, I finally got to a place in my life to where I had plenty of free time to sit down and write a novel. It was a struggle at first, mainly because I heedlessly jumped into the deep end, and quickly learned that writing a novel was a lot tougher than I ever imagined.

I spent a month writing the first paragraph – that’s how ignorant I was.

More than a few times, I just wanted to give up and toss in the towel, but I powered on and finished the first draft. The next step, I read the entire novel aloud to my wife, one chapter every day, correcting errors along the way.

Once that part was over, I foolishly believed I had a novel that was ready to be published.

I was wrong – undeniably wrong.

The euphoric feeling of finishing a novel is amazing. I had never experienced anything like it before, and for those who know, it’s a dam good feeling.

I queried agents – and after I got rejected numerous times, I decided to self-publish and prove to the publishing world they were wrong.

 

This is what Failure looks like.

Part 2

More Editing? Why? I corrected all the errors.

No, I corrected what my eyes and mind wanted me to see.

Ignorance is Bliss – the Ecstasy that clouds all rational thought.

I got a nice cover and self-published my first novel, and put it on Amazon for the entire world to buy and read. I also had 50 copies printed – 25 hardback and 25 paper back. I even set up a book signing at a local library. What I didn’t do, and to this day I don’t know why; look inside and read my great literary work of art. No, no, I mindlessly went to the book signing and sold some books.

And then, . . . it happened.

Sadly, I have a picture of when it happened.

A person who bought my book, opened it, silently read a few pages, and then asked, “Who edited this?”  

Slowly and painfully, the euphoria I had felt, immediately turned into absolute embarrassment, as I opened my book and read the same pages. (I quickly packed up and left)

The next day, my only thought was about how can I fix it. Sure, just contact Amazon and have them take it down. Unfortunately, a few books were purchased already. There was nothing I could do about that. It eventually did get taken down.

The embarrassment isn’t over yet, . . .

The worse part, if that’s even possible, I gave a few books to family members and bragged about my great accomplishment on the family Facebook page.

 

Moving on, . . .

I could have given up, after all, my name was ruined, along with my reputation, what little of it there was. I could have quit and hide in shame forever.

But that’s not me. I had to fix it! So, I got right back up on the horse and got to work, but this time, I contacted a friend who knew a thing or two about editing. I rewrote the first book, and wrote another and another – and a Trilogy was born.

15 years and six books later, I’m still writing, and working on a seventh book.

 

The day my writing career turned for the better

Nothing is over until you say it’s over. The embarrassment and public humiliation hurt, but for me, it was just another chapter in the story of my life.

I’m not uncomfortable sharing my failure, because it’s the truth. I made a mistake. It happens and I moved on. I not a better writer because of what happened, I'm simply smarter about the process.

 

The best advice I could ever give to a young writer – find an editor you can trust.

Oh, and always write like you mean it.

 

jk