Writing: An Exercise in Perseverance

Ugh. You guys. There’s so much that I wish I could tell you about, so many things coming down the pipe that I have to keep secret. The cover for The Cordelia Solution is in the works, I promise. In the meantime, you can preorder it for Kindle right now.

I’m also working on REDACTED, and my agent is hard at work on REDACTED.

See? You see what I’m dealing with? So much to share, but we’ll all have to be patient.

So you want to be an author…

Speaking of patience, that’s a quality that is key if you want to be an author. One of my favorite interactions at conventions is when young or early-in-career authors come to me asking for advice. The whole industry can feel overwhelming and frustrating. Everything takes SO LONG.

Recently, a friend reached out to me. Their partner had written and self-published their first book. They were feeling pretty down, though. Their review numbers were barely a trickle. Nobody was buying the book.

Sure, some of this is about market and marketing. It’s also about patience.

I published my first novel, The Lost and Broken Realm, in 2013. After getting like two rejections from agents, I decided to self-pub. I didn’t have thick enough skin to deal with the rejections. I didn’t see the issues with that manuscript that I see now. I didn’t have the perspective to understand the work that needed to be done, the time needed.

By the time I got to The Hermes Protocol, I’d learned A LOT. Not only had I completed my MFA in creative writing by then, but I’d grown thicker skin. I’d read slush piles for New Letters Magazine and No. 1 Magazine. I’d learned more about the industry and writing from my professors and fellow students.

Even now, in the year of our Lord Beyoncé 2025, I’m still learning. I write daily, improving my craft. My agent teaches me so much about the industry every time we talk. I attend professional conferences like the Nebula Awards and WorldCon, absorbing information like a sponge. A space sponge. This is sci-fi, after all.

It’s a marathon, obviously

I saw an Instagram reel in which a literary agent laid out how long it takes for an author to be a full-time author, making enough from their writing to live. By “live,” he meant $50,000 per year. He laid it out with advances, contracts, and royalties. All of the amounts he laid out were higher than I’ve ever managed for an advance or contract or sales.

And yet, it took seven years to read that $50,000 per year volume.

Seven. Years.

This is not a sprint. If you think you’re going to write a book that will be the next Hunger Games or Fourth Wing, think again. And I invite you to look at the careers of both women who wrote those books, by the way. They were both established for a while before their mega-hit books hit shelves.

And most books will never reach the levels that those books have reached.

If you don’t love writing, why are you here?

This industry is tough. It’s slow. It’s ruled by chaos.

So here’s the TLDR of this whole newsletter. If you don’t love writing, then this is not the career for you. Don’t write because you want a bestseller. Write because you love it, because you have stories to tell that you think need to be in the world. If you love it and write those stories, they’ll find their audiences.

Provided you do the marketing to make sure people know they exist, of course. But that’s another topic entirely.