Gary Vaynerchuk – Jean's Writing

Me too!

And of course fairies, everyone believes in fairies.

For the A-Z Challenge letter O the word is

Overnight success

How many emails hit your inbox each day promising to make you an overnight success. Five, ten or more? And you only thing needed is for you to buy their latest book or subscribe to their latest writing course.

Now don’t get me wrong, some are wonderful and legit. But none are gonna make me an overnight success. At best the good ones can only act as stepping-stones to success.

How do I know? Because I’ve fell for a few.

rain-storm

Now I don’t mean to rain on anybody’s parade because I guess it could happen. I mean people get struck by lightning every day somewhere in the world, I’m sure.

What we can do is take advantage of every opportunity that comes our way. Look around and free and affordable opportunities for a writer. (Hey! Another O word.)

Check with libraries, and writing groups for local events where you might promote your books. Take advantage of these and be patient. This one is hard for me. I’m an introvert and patience has never been a virtue I could brag about.

I have to remind myself that no amount of frantic tweeting, posting, or hours spent on Facebook will blast my book into the stratosphere overnight. Even “going viral,” is here today and gone tomorrow, in our “now” internet age. So, I can’t count on one of my tweets, images or books “going viral” to do much for my success as an author. Of course, I do have some cute grandkids. Hmm….

Nope, overnight success is not gonna happen.

Instead of repeating– I am smart, I am strong, I am pretty, I am brave.

The following is my morning mirror affirmation:

Building the perfect online brand takes time. Be patient.
Writing a best seller takes time. Be patient.
Getting the word out about your amazing talent takes time. Be patient.
I am brave and not a quitter. I am patient. (Too bad I don’t believe everything I tell myself.)

“Some say I’m an overnight success. Well, that was a very long night that lasted about 10 years. But while I do, of course, now feel the pressure having had books that have been very successful, I just know I have to concentrate on writing for myself. I can’t worry about genres or markets or what might be commercial or not. That never works.” Kate Morton

What’s your experience with “overnight success?”

How long did it take for you to achieve an “overnight success?”

Talk to me, the lights on and comments are now open.

You can find me on Twitter @jeancogdell, Facebook at jean.cogdelland Amazon.com, stop by and say hey! Please remember to click and share this post with your Twitter peeps and Facebook fans.