Tonight I was talking to my coach, Lynn, and we were comparing how the writing environment has changed over the years. Writing is unlike any other forms of art out there. If you're a singer, actor, or artist, success brings expensive cars and palatial homes. Not so much the writer. With the inventions of Amazon, AI, and others, any rewards coming to writers get chipped away. There are many writers out there who make $0 or even $0.01 in royalties off each book sold. If you've never written a book, you will never know the heart-wrenching work that goes into making a book a reader will immerse themselves into for weeks at a time. Writing is the loneliest profession out there. Every writer writes different ways, but the thing that unites all writers is the time spent making the next best-seller. Another creed that unites all writers is we are not in it for the money. Most writers will sing for their supper without making enough royalties in a month to buy a Starbucks coffee. But it is a great conversation starter at parties!

I spend no less than 12 hours a day writing. Any other pursuits in my life take the backseat to writing. My keyboard is my canvas, microphone, and stage. Certainly, adding "The End" after a couple of hundred pages feels like a success. And it is for many. Being able to drive a Mercedes is another measurement. Here are some of my successes: the very first fan letter! I'll never forget that! Someone thinks of me! That was one of the greatest moments of my life! Public figures that don't enjoy their audience have no business being in the business. My second success is when my first book made it to #1 on Amazon. For writers, even that achievement is diminished. Amazon changes their numbers every hour. If the writer is lucky, they will have the joy of seeing that little orange banner on their site and can take a picture before it disappears. Today, another milestone happened to me. The news of my release of Utopia was released by BookLife, part of Publisher's Weekly. For those who don't know, Publisher's Weekly is the Promised Land for writers.

Is this article sounding a bit negative? No. It just shows the hard work writers put into their craft. There is positive news for beginning writers! You just have to keep punching through and you will have success. The 'punching through' is different for each writer. Unless you write a best-selling diet book, don't count on making a million dollars off your prose at the beginning of your career. But there will come a time... You'll see the writing process gets more refined and easier, but still lonely. So, if you wrote your first book, let me be the first to congratulate you! But what comes next? To achieve the level of success we all think of, continue to write, write, write. I'm talking one book after another. There is no "stopping." If you're not writing, you're not a writer.

On the heels of today's announcement of Utopia being published, I have another announcement for tomorrow, and that is my next book. One good announcement always has to be followed up by even a better one. A writer is only as good as their last book. Writers have to have thick skin. Negative reviews are gut punches and we only have ourselves to blame. Actors can blame the script or cast and singers can blame their producers. Writers don't have that luxury. Suck it up buttercup, write another book, then another...repeat. You'll have the last laugh in the end. Keep adding to that catalog of books and soon you'll be associated with that lovely three-word title: best-selling author!