Being a Writer, The Hardest Part

I am a writer, I’ve named myself that for a good few years now, and at the beginning, it felt a bit presumptuous, but I’m over that now. I write, therefore I am a writer. And I now have eight published books to my name, and three other books on their way to being sent off to get printed, or considered by a publisher. So yes, I am definitely a writer.

Being a writer, is a title I am happy to admit to. Sometimes getting the needed words written, and written well enough can be difficult, and other times getting the time to write what you want to write can be difficult too.

But if I put my mind to it, and commit to getting a good bit of writing down, it can flow, and flow well. I’m fortunate in that I don’t need to have a paid job, so finding writing time is relatively easy, most of the time, if not always.

But in my mind, for me, the hardest part about this whole writing thing is to get the word out about my books and writing to other people … If I was a business person, I would send out, or have my ‘people’ send out press releases, telling of my most recent product or service. If I was a sportsperson, journalists would write articles about me, and come begging for interviews with me.

But I’m not any of those things, I’m a writer, and though ‘being a writer’ can rightly be called a business, it is also an art, and art and business only mix uneasily, it seems to me. The idea of marketing oneself, and what a writer has done, as a business may market their new ‘whatsit’, feels like cheapening the ‘art’ side of what a writer does. Typing out all of those words, to produce a book is not simply churning any old words, they must be the best words possible.

So struggling to make the best ‘art’ possible and putting that literate side of what a writer does is a difficult, but it is also the most enjoyable part of things too, when the words flow, and what you are doing feels just so right, so special, so what you must do … Writing isn’t just a job, it is a calling, and if a writer isn’t writing, they are often thinking about their writing, and wishing they could be sitting down and writing … It feels like the thing they love to do, the best thing in the world, when it is going well!

That part of it is wonderful, making art from words, who wouldn’t want to do that, I know it is one of the best things there is in the world, for me, I love it! The other part, having to deal with the piece of writing I have created, finding the best home for it, whether poem, article, short story, or book, selling my ‘art’ as one would sell a commodity, that is the bit that doesn’t come naturally.

So really, the hardest part is stepping back, taking off the ‘writer’ hat, and putting on the ‘marketer’ hat, and selling that book to a publisher, and then selling those published books to book buyers! That is what I think anyway. I would love to read what other writers think about all of this. I love books, I adore signing copies of my books, and talking about books, I just find the part about actually finding ways to sell those books to invisible ‘others’ difficult … And advice bout this would be most welcome!