Guest Post from Alexandra Lanc

Waiting For “When” By Alexandra Lanc

For an author, there is nothing more exciting than seeing a finished product -- that small, little button online that says “purchase”, that shiny new paperback with your name on it -- but when the thrill of finally releasing your work for readers to devour loses its high, it can sometimes be hard to find the strength to keep your optimism up.

Are you wondering what I’m talking about? I’m referring to that moment in all author’s lives where something horrible happens -- when there are no sales, and no reviews.

We all have rough days. It’s a part of life, and it’s definitely a part of writing, and is quite possibly worse than editing or re-writing. But when sales are bad, and reviews are scarce, it’s often hard to remember why we started writing in the first place. We begin to wonder if anyone is reading, if our work is any good, or if we should just give up. And when we try and explain to others where our frustration spawns from, they simply say “Don’t worry, things will get better. Your sales will go up. Just give it time”, and we become frustrated all over again (unless, of course, the person you’re venting to is an author as well, in which case they know exactly how you feel).

When sales are bad, we all look for an easy alternative -- a sale on our poorly-selling book, or some free copies to reviewers -- and while these things can be good, often they don’t help as much as we would like -- because, face it, we all want our books to be bestsellers, at the top of the charts, made into films. And if we don’t want that, we at least want someone to love our stories as much as we do.

But it’s in times like this that I believe we have a choice. We can either let the sales frustrate us, or we can move onto something else, and make the best of what we’ve been given. Because I believe that every story has someone who will love it -- and that person may not find your story today, and they may not find it tomorrow, but eventually, they will find it, and then will be able to share it with others who will love it just as much as they do.

In the “modern” world, it’s often hard to remember that nothing happens overnight, and that if it does, it didn’t really happen overnight, but simply seems like it did. Things take time, and the more time spent on a project means it will only be better. So though waiting for “when” -- when your book will be read, when your sales will go up, when stars will be added along with reviews, when you’ll get that new idea -- can be frustrating and even heartbreaking at times, in the end, waiting is worth it, because when we wait, great things are bound to happen.

So if you’re stuck in the middle of frustration, and are waiting for something to happen -- be it that book deal you’ve been dreaming of, that feedback from readers that you’re craving, or that boost in numbers that will make your heart sing -- don’t stop waiting, because, more than likely...your time is just around the corner, waiting for you just as you’ve been waiting for it.