This is for those writers who are at a crossroads in their thought processes vis-a-vis writing or not writing. They've probably been told they should give up, the competition is too fierce, their books aren't good enough, they have no talent...yada ad infinitum.

Okay, here's the scoop the way I see it. I have to be honest and I make no claims on being the best author around. I think I'm good, but I also realize there is room to improve on every front and I'll get back to that later.

One, you have to be realistic. There IS a lot of competition out there, traditional as well as self-published. That means you're usually going up against a LOT of authors in your genre, so your novel had better be good. It had better be better than good, NOT just in your mind, but in the minds of your beta readers.

I've read novels that had absolutely no right to be on the market. Poor to non-existent grammar. Overuse of adverbs--and I was guilty of that in the beginning, too--derivative storylines, flat characters...the woiks. And every single one of them was self-pubbed.

Yes, I've read many self-pubbed novels that were superb and I can give names, if you like, but the ratio of bad self-pubbed to bad trad. pubbed is something like 11:1 if the Interwebz is half right.

Whatever the case, if you can't write a comprehensible sentence, then you shouldn't publish and expect to be taken seriously.

Two--and this is in line with what I said above concerning improvement--you should try to get better in every facet of your writing. In the beginning, I had zero narrative sense. I was good at writing action scenes and dialogue, but my narrative sucked.

So, I got to it, studied what everyone else was doing right and what I was doing wrong. I developed my own style, simple, but effective. And the reviews show that I've improved.

However, that isn't enough. You have to strive for improvement in every aspect of what you write in every book you write. Be it narrative, dialogue, crafting realistic characters...whatever. Keep improving.

The Japanese use the term 'kaizen' in the business world, which loosely translates as 'neverending improvement' and that makes sense. So, get to it.

Finally, what if you have some skill and others discourage you? That's the biggie. My answer is: don't listen to them. If they offer honest critiques, yes, DO listen. But there are those who tear others down because they can, because they've never attempted to write anything of note, and because it makes them feel good to drag others down to their level.

I was told when I started out that I had nothing to offer. I didn't listen to them. I was told that I should just give up, do something else...that kind of thing. I didn't listen.

I'm on book 35 (?) now, and I still don't listen to those who have nothing constructive to say. You shouldn't, either. Constructive advice, yes. Destructive comments, no. If I'd listened to my detractors, I wouldn't be here now.

I'm still writing. So should you be writing as well. My two yen for the day.