Don't Worry About Being a Bestseller
Everyone wants to be a “Bestselling Author” but I’m here to drop a little knowledge and burst a few bubbles like Inigo Montoya…that term does not mean what you think it means.
The day I found out I made the New York Times bestseller list I was the cow that orbited the moon because jumping over it was too easy for a freaking bestseller. I’d finally made it and the literary world was the spicy oyster rolling down my throat at the fancy restaurant I took my family to that night. I thought the offers would start rolling in and I could finally quit the rat race to write full time.
Oh, you silly silly man.
I co-wrote Dark World, Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew with Zak Bagans; a young, hunky ghost hunter with a Travel Channel show. As books written with celebrity co-authors go, I was lucky. Bagans was very cooperative and we wrote a good book that I was proud of, especially the last chapter where we tackled the leading paranormal theories from a scientific standpoint.
We made the New York Times bestseller list and were ecstatic. But in the weeks following the phone never rang, my email remained eerily quiet, and my mailbox continued to deliver Value Paks and penile enlargement ads. Not only did becoming a bestseller NOT get me a steady writing gig, but my next book was rejected by my longtime publisher because the market changed. Say whaaaaaat?
I learned a valuable lesson – being a bestselling author shouldn’t be your goal. If you’re writing books to make money or gain stature by being labeled a bestselling author then your priorities are befuckled. Those people who say you should be writing for enjoyment, satisfaction, or any other non-material reason know what they’re talking about.
The title “author” used to open doors because publishing a book was the true mark of authority or expertise on a subject, but times are different now. Getting anyone’s attention, even as a bestselling author, is hard. I’ve now published 7 books and written 175 articles for various outlets and magazines, but the big outlets (Men’s Journal or an interview with Anthony Bourdain) remain elusive.
One of the problems is that there are no barriers to becoming an author. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but the incredible glut of books today (both in print and digital) makes it almost impossible for a single project or writer to stand out without massive marketing, timing, or luck. More and more creative people are having their voices heard, which is good, but the stature of the title has been sacrificed for instant availability to authorship. You can literally write the word CRAP a thousand times on a piece of paper, load it onto Kindle, and call yourself an author.
My message is simple…don’t get focused on being a bestseller. It doesn’t do much for you. Instead, just write what you’re passionate about. Write what you want to write, not what someone wants you to write because it may make a buck or get you a fancy title.
Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew
The day I found out I made the New York Times bestseller list I was the cow that orbited the moon because jumping over it was too easy for a freaking bestseller. I’d finally made it and the literary world was the spicy oyster rolling down my throat at the fancy restaurant I took my family to that night. I thought the offers would start rolling in and I could finally quit the rat race to write full time.
Oh, you silly silly man.
I co-wrote Dark World, Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew with Zak Bagans; a young, hunky ghost hunter with a Travel Channel show. As books written with celebrity co-authors go, I was lucky. Bagans was very cooperative and we wrote a good book that I was proud of, especially the last chapter where we tackled the leading paranormal theories from a scientific standpoint.
We made the New York Times bestseller list and were ecstatic. But in the weeks following the phone never rang, my email remained eerily quiet, and my mailbox continued to deliver Value Paks and penile enlargement ads. Not only did becoming a bestseller NOT get me a steady writing gig, but my next book was rejected by my longtime publisher because the market changed. Say whaaaaaat?
I learned a valuable lesson – being a bestselling author shouldn’t be your goal. If you’re writing books to make money or gain stature by being labeled a bestselling author then your priorities are befuckled. Those people who say you should be writing for enjoyment, satisfaction, or any other non-material reason know what they’re talking about.
The title “author” used to open doors because publishing a book was the true mark of authority or expertise on a subject, but times are different now. Getting anyone’s attention, even as a bestselling author, is hard. I’ve now published 7 books and written 175 articles for various outlets and magazines, but the big outlets (Men’s Journal or an interview with Anthony Bourdain) remain elusive.
One of the problems is that there are no barriers to becoming an author. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but the incredible glut of books today (both in print and digital) makes it almost impossible for a single project or writer to stand out without massive marketing, timing, or luck. More and more creative people are having their voices heard, which is good, but the stature of the title has been sacrificed for instant availability to authorship. You can literally write the word CRAP a thousand times on a piece of paper, load it onto Kindle, and call yourself an author.
My message is simple…don’t get focused on being a bestseller. It doesn’t do much for you. Instead, just write what you’re passionate about. Write what you want to write, not what someone wants you to write because it may make a buck or get you a fancy title.
Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew
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