Jealousy is idiotic. Writers can often be insecure types… So they’re often jealous of the success of other writers.
- LEO BABAUTA
from Dan: I know I am occasionally jealous of other writers
Wanna know what I do about that jealousy, when I feel it?
I embrace them.
I try to become friends with the person I’m jealous of.
I hold their work up and say “SCORECARD: they sell more than me; they are a better writer!”
I read their stuff to learn from it. I try to emulate their work habits.
And I sit in the dark, red-faced at my jealousy, wishing I were a better person, a better writer – and working hard to be one.
Occasionally they’ll become friends with me and say I’m a good writer, sometimes stating that I’m a better writer than they are.
Scorecard says otherwise, but it still feels damned good to see my work is admired by those I admire, and that my moment is probably coming – if I keep working.
13 replies on “How to embrace your JEALOUSY of other writers (not that you have any)”
“The only one who writes better than me on any given day, is me when I give myself a day to write better!”
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Nice.
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I think you know this, but more sales =/= better writing. I bet we can all think of examples of books that sold like hotcakes and also happened to be crappy. On the flip side, lots of great books struggle to put up big numbers.
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Yeah, but for the most part audiences get it right.
More sales is usually somebody doing something right. I use the sales scorecard as my measuring stick and it drives me to work harder and get better. I want what they have, so am I willing to do what it takes to get what they’ve gotten? I hope so, but in my own way, too.
If they work hard, I want to work harder. If they market, I want to market to the best of my abilities, and that means doing events and YouTube shows and conferences as a presenter.
I need to market harder. I can only do what I can do, but there’s a lot I can do – and a lot I can do more of.
Shame on me if somebody outsells me because they outwork me. There’s no excuse for that, and usually if they sell better than I do it’s because they are working harder.
So I need to up my game.
And maybe write romances and mysteries.
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Keeping at it is huge. Genre helps too. LOL
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Screw time travel sci fi.
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LOL. Where would Star Trek be if Roddenberry had said that?
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Look, I’m the first to admit I do what I do better than anybody else. It’s like I have my own little niche. And one day it’ll be a worldwide famous brand, but until then I’ve been systematically trying every genre to see which one I like best and which one likes me best.
So far so good.
And you know there’s a Navigators sequel in the works (a best book of 2016 according to Happy Meerkat Reviews), but there’s also a lot of other stuff that I need to pursue, like romance and fantasy and paranormal and…
And 2017 is going to be full of all of that!
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Reblogged this on Don Massenzio's Blog.
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Thanks, Don! Happy new year.
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You’re welcome. Same to you, Dan.
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Words of wisdom!
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Thanks!
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