A Little Fish in a Big Pond



Do you ever go out to a local bar, club, or street dance and notice that the band playing is really good.  I mean so good that they grab your attention from talking with your friends and hold your attention while you think to yourself, wow, they are really good. Sure, we’ve all heard the bands that match the environment that they are playing in, good, but relegated to background music while you visit. There are also the bands that make you cringe and try to tune out because they are so awful. The largest group is in the middle, of course, the bands that have the music down well enough that a non-musician wouldn’t notice a missed note or two and a lead singer that does a decent job.

It’s happened many times where I’ve really noticed how good a band is in a small time venue and wondered what separates them from the top bands, the ones that everyone knows their name and they sell over a million copies of their songs. Because some of those small time bands are really, really good. What pushes the big bands out in front? What makes them succeed in the big league when equally (or sometimes better) bands never go past the local venues?

Yes, there’s commitment, dedication, and sacrifice but all those things don’t guarantee a spot in the limelight. Sometimes it feels like a lottery where some will make it and some won’t and it has little to do with talent.

It’s the same thing with writing. The need to write is a need to write. No writer has ever decided to write a book to make a million dollars the first year of publication. It simply does not work that way. I’m sure there are a few, the same ones who play the lottery every week in hopes of winning. Anyone who thinks publishing a book is a guarantee of a large cash flow hasn’t published a book.  The average income for published authors is $10k/year. That’s average. To get an average you take Stephen King and Rawlings and average their millions of income with those at the other end, those who don’t come close to even thousands of dollars per year.

Sometimes it feels like luck (or lack of luck) to even be seen in the world of millions of books published and available online. Being invisible is the biggest curse. Even authors with one or two successful books can fade into invisibility with subsequent books. It’s a tough world out there for authors. We’re all little fish in a big pond with other little fish and a few big fish.


We do it because it’s a need. Much like swimming for fish. We write because the need is stronger than the rejection and invisibility. Most authors would settle for enough book sales to pay the mortgage and electric bill so they can keep writing. Commitment, dedication, and sacrifice are all part of any artist’s life, whether that artist plays music, writes, or paints.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

  I am currently working on a story that my brain feels determined must be told. After weeks of being unable to fall asleep because this story decided to play out in my head once that head hit the pillow, I finally decided to dive in. The reason I was not ready to start a new story was because I am in the final steps of another novel. That novel is about a real life romance. You know, the kind where we didn't make the right choices. The kind where we don't get the true love happily ever after. I shall return to that to wrap it up once I get the bones down for the story that has kept me up at night for so many weeks. That story is a suspense thriller about a time in the near future where things go terribly, horribly wrong in the world. A small team has set out to go beyond the line to rescue a doctor who has become trapped in the heart of the area where airplanes drop from the sky, cars or anything electronic dies, and people (who are not zombies) attack anyone who enters the Dr...
Read more

Thoughts on Shades of Right 1

 I am currently looking for a real job so it is a struggle some days to make time for the author life. People who read Shades of Right have given me so much positive feedback but the book is buried within the seemingly infinite choices these days on the internet. It's a good story, based on a real event that happened in Missouri during the Civil War. The event was so intriguing to me that I wrote the book. Though my main characters are fictitious, I tried to bring them to life in an environment as true to the way life was at the time in Minnesota and Missouri. The Other Civil War occurred at the same time as the War Between the States. The Native Americans had been pushed onto reservations where they were left to starve and the money promised to them was delayed again and again until the tinder box of emotions exploded, which started the Sioux Uprising, the Other Civil War. It occurred at the same time as the Civil War. The event that set Shades of Right into motion was that 38 men...
Read more

Shades of Right Excerpt

This is an excerpt from Shades of Right: I was five years old when Master Meadows bought me. Master Meadows said he had not meant to buy a slave that day. He had gone to the auction with his old friend, Samuel Taylor, who was in need of a household slave for his daughter’s wedding gift. Master Meadows said he spotted me up on the block and felt his heart stir in a grand way. There I was, five years old, all alone, with the biggest brown eyes and a determined expression. That was what Master Meadows said often over the years when people asked him whyever did he buy a little boy. I stood with my shoulders straight and faced the crowd of buyers with the expression of a condemned man facing his execution with bravery and honor. I don’t remember much of anything before going home with Master Meadows. I guess that means my life started up on that auction block. My memories of my mother were vague even before the day Master Meadows bought me. I was separated from her long before finding mysel...
Read more