Friday, June 22, 2018

Signs of Success by Warren Bull

Signs of Success by Warren Bull





Image from http://independent.co.uk

I wasn’t sure how I was doing.

I’ve been writing and promoting a Facebook page named I Love Abe Lincoln in preparation for the release of my next book: Abraham Lincoln: Seldom Told Stories. https://www.facebook.com/rwb10/I’ve never had a Facebook page before. This is my first non-fiction book. How many likes per month would indicate good progress? How much money should advertising cost per individual like? I had no idea about how to measure my performance.
But then I got two “I hate Lincoln” posts telling me what a traitor the sixteenth President was; how pathetic I was not to know that and how utterly clueless my posts were. At that point I knew I had to be doing something right. I heard the “boos.”

When I published my first book, after seven years of work, I told a man I thought of as a friend about my success. His face got red, his chest and shoulders tensed. He glared at me. He told me that for years he had been trying to get a book he wrote published.  He was never again as friendly as he had been before I told him. I was surprised back then. Something like that wouldn’t surprise me now.

I have another friend whose facial expression wobbles between disdainful and envious when the subject of my writing comes up. He has written books of a more academic nature. I mostly write genre fiction. He is a good friend. I like him very much. He likes me, but I don’t really fit into the three categories of writing that a career in an academic setting cemented into his mind. Category one: literary writing; Category Two: literary criticism, Category Three: who gives a flip? If it is not literary, it is irrelevant.  I think my first book was better than he expected, but I guess he thought it could have been a fluke. He was complimentary with a heavy dose of condescension. Some time after that he admitted that he wants to write a mystery but he can’t get past the first chapter. Now that I have five books published, I imagine it’s harder to think I’ve just been lucky. We can chat about publishers, a necessary evil in the life of every writer, but he is not very interested in what I’m working on at the moment.

Of course I could be wrong about his reactions. I’m not a mind reader, but I was a clinical psychologist for 30 years. I can read behavior.
My success does not come at the expense of anybody else. I don’t compete with other writers. I admire many other writers. I try to learn and to teach through a critique group, which is a marvelous way to learn. (More on that in another article. Watch this space.) I figure people are likely to read more than one book in a lifetime. If they like what you write, they might like what I write too. It’s not like acting where there can only be one Hamlet in a production. 

 But there are people who feel jealous. There are people who think there has to be a loser for every winner. You don’t always get applause. Sometimes it’s the “boos” that show you’re heading in the right direction. 

12 comments:

  1. Well said. A close friend told me she found short stories "unfulfilling" and didn't bother reading them. Her loss.

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  2. Sometimes it's the "boos" that show you're heading in the right direction. Warren, I might just have this engraved in the wall above my desk. I love it.

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  3. Wonderful blog. You inspire me... now I can listen to the boos differently too. You rock!

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  4. I've heard all kinds of comments that I'd classify as hurtful. "I don't read romance." People making that face. And family and friends who say they are supportive, but haven't read a word. Have to shrug it off and keep on because no one will determine my destiny about my writing but me. Good blog post.

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  5. Margaret, She has no idea what she is missing out on

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  6. Warren, you can't let envious people get under your skin, and that's what they are. Fortunately, for me, I self publish so I don't have to deal with those kind of people. I look forward to reading the book you're working on now. I happen to admire Abraham Lincoln very much.

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  7. We all know that our work won't please everyone, and that's okay. People have different taste. We also know that some people try to make themselves feel better by making others feel bad. That's not okay.

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  8. Excellent post, Warren, and so true. I don’t have a book out yet (someday I hope). But in the meantime I try to support other mystery writers as much as I can by going to book launches, readings, interviewing authors here on WWK, and buying books. But I have to admit that some friends write the type of book that I don’t feel comfortable reading, and I am less inclined to buy or read their books. I also realize that someday when my cozy mystery comes out that lots of my family and friends won’t find it their cup of tea, and that’s okay.

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  9. You speak for many of us, Warren. I recognized everyone of your experiences. My twelfth book comes out in September, and I can already anticipate some of the less welcome reactions. But I treasure those readers who tell me they loved my stories and when will I have another one. Those are the people who matter, and those are the ones I write for.

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