Lately I’ve been reading Write. Publish. Repeat. by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant, guys who started a podcast called The Self-Publishing Podcast several years ago. These guys are legitimate. They produce a crazy amount of content every year—mostly fiction, but some nonfiction—with word counts in the millions.
In their book, they talk about producing a new episode (they release some of their books like TV episodes—one a week—which is a model I’d like to be trying out soon) every week. Each episode is about 20,000 or 30,000 words.
Each week they’re writing 20,000 to 30,000 words, getting those words into format they can sell, publicizing it, and then launching it to sell.
Let me just say: I can’t even imagine doing that.
Each week I’m lucky to log 25,000 words in rough draft form and another 10,000 or so in final draft form (and that if I’m REALLY lucky and the kids don’t interrupt me even once). I’m lucky to spend a little time compressing something into an actual book I could sell. I’m lucky if I have the slightest amount of time to work on a book description or back matter.
So, of course, lately I’ve been comparing my output to their output and feeling a little discouraged. Will I ever get there? How can I be more efficient? Why can’t I do that, too?
They have a successful indie publishing business, and they produce a crazy amount of product, but what if my not-so-crazy amount of product means that I won’t have a successful indie publishing career?
Platt and Truant talk about the importance of creating funnels, which really means leading one book into another, like with book series or something that will naturally lead readers into another book. They say you shouldn’t launch a book until you have two.
Problem is it takes me six months to write a book. So a year’s worth of work (if I’m lucky) and I can’t even get a book in my store?
Well, here’s the thing, though: comparison isn’t helpful or our own, specific situation.
Sure, these guys are producing an insane amount of content every year, but that doesn’t mean I have to do it exactly like them to run a successful indie business. They’re not even saying that. In fact, they explicitly say in the beginning pages of their book that it’s not a training manual; it’s a this-is-how-I-did-it manual.
They log incredible word counts every week, but that doesn’t mean I have to log the same word count in order to be taken seriously as an author.
Sometimes I catch myself thinking, There’s no way I’ll be able to do that. It’s true for now. But there may be a day I’ll be able to do it, when kids are older and need me less. That day is not today. I don’t have the margin to write for long hours of the day. I will have to take what I can get, because I’m not giving up.
Sometimes we can see these comparisons and think we’re just not trying hard enough or we just don’t have what it takes or we should just quit before we get our hopes up, because obviously we’re lacking something that they have.
Comparison can stop us right in our tracks.
The truth is, writer careers take all different sizes and shapes. Some people can release a 30,000-word book every week. Some people can release a 70,000-word book in a year. It’s all legitimate.
Some writers have kids (lots of them). Other choose not to have kids or family or anything that might distract them from the end goal. It doesn’t mean that either of us is wrong or less or more of a writer.
We can never see ourselves clearly if we’re looking through comparison eyes. We need to take off those lenses that say we should do it that way exactly, like that person, or else…
Or else we’re not going to see success.
Or else they’ll never take us seriously.
Or else our writing won’t be esteemed.
The world wouldn’t be a very interesting place if we all looked the same. The writing world wouldn’t be a very interesting place if all our writing careers looked the same.
So we must do what we can do and let the work rest in our effort for today.
Here are some ways to stop comparison in its tracks instead of letting it stop us:
1. Keep a log of how many words you write each day and celebrate when the word count goes up. Don’t look at others’ word counts. Just look at your own and make yourself better day by day. One word at a time.
2. Start a journal of everything you accomplish each day. At the end of the year, look back on the list and remember. Remember how productive you were. Remember how much you enjoyed it. Remember how exciting it was to build your writer career and how humbling it is that you get to do this.
3. Assess your expectations. Sometimes our expectations, when they’re not aligned with reality, are what can make us look around at other people, because we want either affirmation that we’re on the right path or we want to know if we should set a different goal for ourselves. Make your goals and remember that they’re fluid, not set in stone. And then give it your best effort because you think it’s right, not because someone else’s career told you it was right.
The beauty of building a writing business is that we get to make the rules. We get to work toward our own goals.
Don’t let comparison kill what momentum you already have.
Let me say it again: Don’t let comparison kill what momentum you already have.
(This post is just as much for me as everyone else. I’ll be reading it as often as I need to. I hope you will, too.)
