In search of that #1 best seller.
We sit, we write, we re-write and then... we submit and wait for someone to respond. The writing part is the easy part. It is something that just comes natural and fills the heart with a sense of accomplishment when we are finished. If you are like me, writing is also therapeutic. It allow the mind to settle and concentrate on the writing, instead of this world we live in.
The tough part is getting that novel you just submitted to a publisher, read. Each and every writer wants their writing to be read. Not just read by a few but tyruly read. The Holy Grail of writing is out there for some. The number 1 best seller list is sitting there, looking at every novel that hits the public market. Like the stars in the sky at night, you swear you could reach out and pluck it right out the the air. But, again like the starts or clouds, as you swipe your hand through the air to grab it, your hand passes through empty air. The realization that it is not as close as you thought it was.
Since the time that man has looked at the stars, he sought a way to reach them. He wanted to "reach out" and take a star in to his hand. He worked countless hours and the cost was often high while he strived to be face to face with a star. If he could not bring the stars to himself, he would go to the stars instead. Practice after practice, year after year, man endeavored to find a way to travel in to Space and fanally say, "I touched the stars. Man wanted it bad enough and he got it.
An analogy of the writer today. Going after that #1Best Seller is very much like reaching the stars. Practice after practice, writing all hours of the night, book signings and placing your novel or novels anywhere and every where you can find, on-line and off-line, trying so hard to reach that star. Just as man was from time to time, disappointed at the failed attempts to reach the stars, so is the writer disappointed when that goal is not reached. Never giving up, chasing leads and following maybe's, the writer finds that marketing is the absolute avenue to take if the "stars" are ever to be reached.
I still reach out in to the sky at night, two fingers nearly touching, one eye closed and the other looking through the little gap between the fingers. I close them just enough to make it appear as if I have just captured a star between my finger-tips. I bring my fingers closer to my face, slowly turn them to face me and smile softly at myself. The fingers are empty but I know that I will be out there again tomorrow night, reaching out to touch that star.
I encourage you, as a writer, to continue daily to reach out and try to take that star in your finger-tips. It might take a lot of work and a good amount of walking, but if you continue to try to reach that place that every author dreams of, maybe one day, you will hold a "Star" in the palm of your hand. I know I am not going to stop trying. I want my writings to be read by the world. One book at a time or 10,000 books at a time, I will touch that star one day. All I need is the same thing that rocket-ship needed to reach the stars. A little boost and a push in the right direction.