Importance of Vision to be a Successful Writer

Writers who simply keep all of their writing to themselves may be good writers, but they will never be successful ones. To be successful as a writer, you have to get your words ‘out there’ where others can read and appreciate what you’ve done, and what you continue to do.

Having a vision of yourself as that successful writer, and taking action toward making it happen, is what you have to do. Being involved with others who want to further their writing success, may seem like a bad idea, because you may be competing, but it’s actually a great idea, because there’s plenty of room for more and more good writers in the world! BE one of them, and gain inspiration from others!

Meeting other, more successful writers, is a great way to gain connections – meet them, talk with them, exchange business cards! And if you wish to gain a readership, look for every option possible to make this happen. Go to Author talks, workshops, anything where you can meet with successful writers! Public radio stations are always looking for people to talk on their programs. Send in your details, and talk!

Public libraries are often looking for writers to talk about their books too, and there may be the chance to run a workshop in writing, if you feel confident in doing that. And a tip for you, if you write creatively already, enjoy it, and are satisfied that you do it well, you’ll probably do well at running workshops – give it a go, it could be a new way to sell books! Always have your books with you to sell!

Schools too, are sometimes good for finding ‘talking’ engagements. Those students are itching for something new, and someone different to listen to. Contact schools close to where you live, and you may be surprised at how exciting and invigorating talking with these great young people can be.

So hold to a Vision of yourself as an interesting and successful writer, and work at making it so. If this seems too far away for you to achieve, baby steps, but forward steps. Write up a CV that shows your credentials as this Successful Writer, with any and all of your writing or word related successes.

Being prepared to ‘Get out there!’ is part of this Vision for becoming a Successful Writer. My personal next step is going to be to send out my details to service groups, schools, and libraries, close to where I live. Probus, CWA, Rotary, Lions clubs, they are all looking for their next speaker for a meeting, and that Speaker could be you. These may not be paid gigs, but they are definitely chances to sell copies of your books, if you have copies available.

And that hint, repeated, if your have any published books, you should always have copies available to sell, whenever you go out anywhere, where it may be appropriate to share news of your writing.

Coffee chat with friends – YES, trip to explore a new town – YES, visit to relatives -YES – shopping journey – YES, everywhere you go – YES!

Any and all of these may lead to book sales, or possible speaking engagements. And have your business card too, always. I’m thinking about making up book marks with my contact details … Perhaps I could include a list of my published books. Or I could have book marks with a poem of mine on them, and the details of the Poetry Collection of mine the poem cam from.

You may have different ideas on what you might be able to do. List the possibilities, and do it, I’m going to!