Edward
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Author: "Caretakers of Eternity"
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Post by Edward on Sept 16, 2011 1:45:40 GMT -5
Of course, this is just my opinion, right? Because I, myself, am not successful yet. But I will be. I know it. I’m not trying to be arrogant, because I’m not saying, “I’m such a good writer, that’s why I’ll be successful.” I’m saying it in spite of that. I’m no better writer than you are; I’m sure of that. Dean Koontz, Stephen King, and John Grisham are technically not that good. But I know I know I’ll be successful for two reasons: I’ve prayed for it and I know God wants it for me—maybe even more than I want it for me, But it is really what I want. I’m old enough now to know that. And I’m going to be prolific. I’m going to write a lot of books, and I’m going to do my best with each one of them. I know that’s what it takes to be successful. Today, the playing field is leveled. Anyone can publish. Cover art is cheap. And everyone gets better with experience. Your second novel will be better than your first, and if you keep caring about it, your twentieth novel will be astounding. But will you ever write your twentieth novel? I don’t know why I wrote this. Perhaps I needed to read it myself. Am I off base?
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Lily
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Post by Lily on Sept 16, 2011 13:56:33 GMT -5
I've always believed that success is coming along with the right book at the right time. I doubt that any of the classics would make it in today's market. To me success is being content in the moment, rather than a long term goal. Part of that contentment, of course, can come from the sense of purpose that working towards something we want can give us. As long as we don't become too focused and lose perspective. We could miss out on so much if we do. I used to think that once I was published I'd be happy as Larry. It was all I'd ever really wanted. And I was single-minded to the point of obsessive about it. But I found out that it doesn't quite work that way. It wasn't what I expected. It felt a bit like an anti-climax, like a feeling of disappointment on some much looked forward to event such as Christmas morning! Probably because nothing around us, including ourselves, remains unchanged while we pursue our dream. Everything is in a constant state of flux.
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Edward
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Author: "Caretakers of Eternity"
Posts: 16
Joined: July 2011
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Post by Edward on Sept 16, 2011 14:17:26 GMT -5
Yes, absolutely. Myself, I've been published a few times (articles, that sort of thing), but it's not the Holy Grail. I always thought when Caretakers of Eternity came out, I'd celebrate with a bottle of Dom Perignon. Never did. It's very anti-climactic, like you said.
But, if one defines success as making serious bucks selling fiction, I think they have to be persistent and prolific. Otherwise, it's like you say, they have to have the right book at the right time, like To Kill a Mockingbird during the Civil Rights movement in the U.S.
So, what did you write? You said you had published something.
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Lily
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Post by Lily on Sept 16, 2011 15:37:06 GMT -5
I've had a number of mystery/thriller novels published, and also children's stories. But I can't give the details due to privacy concerns. Many of us here are "refugees" from a pretty nasty forum, whose members are known for their stalking and troublemaking activities. Sorry about that.
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Richard
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Post by Richard on Sept 16, 2011 19:59:07 GMT -5
This is an excellent subject.
It all comes down to how success is defined. It can mean appreciation, wide scale recognition, or personal achievement.
The one way to gauge yourself, and success, is to put personal satisfaction first. Anything else will only enhance that, but should not detract from it.
I wish Lily would let us know what she has written as well. But, I certainly respect her wishes of privacy. Just think, someone here may have bought one of her books and doesn't even know it.
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Edward
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Author: "Caretakers of Eternity"
Posts: 16
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Post by Edward on Sept 20, 2011 13:29:48 GMT -5
I've had a number of mystery/thriller novels published, and also children's stories. But I can't give the details due to privacy concerns. Many of us here are "refugees" from a pretty nasty forum, whose members are known for their stalking and troublemaking activities. Sorry about that. Yeah, that's cool.
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Lily
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Post by Lily on Sept 21, 2011 12:22:25 GMT -5
This song more or less sums up "success." When we reach our goal, it never is as we expected it would be. The moment is all we can count upon. Live it to the full.
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jim
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Post by jim on Oct 4, 2011 17:47:28 GMT -5
Edward, you had me applauding your ambition until you mentioned the Jesus-god. The Jesus-god has a plan for you, according to dogma. I respectfully disagree that Koontz isn't technically that good. And I also disagree that writers always get better with experience. My first five pubs were bad, and I had no idea until very recently; I thought my banal inexperienced style was good because editors were accepting it. One tough hurdle to leap, hubris, let me tell you.
Lily, good luck with your literary work. I suggest you consider that a forum like this is a great place to promote it and generate interest and sales.
Richard, a lot of writers tell me they write for themselves first. That may work for them and it may work for you. I know darn well I won't be successful is the Entertainment Business of writing that way. I'm just not that good. But I'm a hard worker, and I may generate big sales catering to a specific audience I think. And that is my definition of personal satisfaction.
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yarndog
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Post by yarndog on Apr 29, 2012 11:49:33 GMT -5
I have published one book, a business book, on intellectual property. I only have a handful of sales. Making the book took a couple of years and a lot of sweat. The financial reward for my effort pales in comparison. Yet, when I check and see I have a sale I feel like a million bucks. My effort now seems worth it. I would like to sell a million copies. Yet, with every sale I feel like a million bucks. That feeling alone is worth it and to me. Success is defined in so many ways. Financial gain is certainly one of them. Satisfaction is another. Knowing somebody wanted something I created is another. The list is endless. Success is open to interpretation.
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Lily
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Post by Lily on Apr 29, 2012 16:42:22 GMT -5
Good point, Yarndog, and welcome to the forum. It's how contented we feel moment by moment that equates to happiness, rather than how big our bank account balance is.
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Post by joshuachrisstoff on Apr 29, 2012 21:06:53 GMT -5
You know the nearer your destination the more you're slip sliding away! It's so nice to be insane, No one asks you to explain, Radio by your side, Angie baby - Helen Reddy A cripple taught me how to dance A blind man taught me how to see A fallen angel taught me how to fly and a prisoner taught me to be free! - Simple Image - Out of the psychedelic era! www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZMc78HNZ0kI put in the you tube link since I just know none of you are Kiwi's or possibly as old as me. You need to know about the psychedelic era to be able to try to work out the lyrics . . . "Heading back to the beginning of the end, the master's hand" Now if you can work that one out, and I went thru that age completely, please tell me cos I have no idea. POINT! Writers write. It matters not what readers read but it does matter what writer's write! Publishing is simply a means of sharing what one writs. Music does the same, but usually has to rhyme, I guess. Success! I have no idea what success is. I have some memories of where I have been and what I have done. Strangely enuff, I have some memories of where I am going and what will be. What EXACTLY I am going to do. I started writing late in life, Nov, 08. I have no formal skills and 21 books completed, in the can, so to speak. I just love rereading old ones I have written. In Announcement I show you all something. The single greatest thing they did with the cover, after me outrightly destroying their designers ideas over my outline was to add something very small. "Volume 1" Now I have to believe that this is the publisher indicating that they will publish at least book 2 in the series. All 21 are in the series. I had an idea the other day about a stand alone book that I may or may not finish. If I do, it will be an awesome work of ART! It will be a thousand pages, and I doubt anyone will believe what it is and that some swine actually wasted their time writing it. It will matter. In the meantime I have about 28 starts to finish within the series. Fiction is a mind game. I am housebound with a serious chronic illness. I leave the house may four times a year and that is often to go to hospital or specialist appointments. I write covert spec ops. My TEAM goes anywhere and everywhere I feel like taking them. My realm is unlimited. I do fall back on individual experiences which are very wide and varied but it is mostly fiction. I use resources I find on the internet and I just go and do. I try to remain within the bounds of human capability but let's face it, adventure tourism is showing us so much more than we ever believed we could do, especially traveling into space! Writers write!
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Lily
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Post by Lily on Apr 29, 2012 22:38:41 GMT -5
Fiction is a mind game. I am housebound with a serious chronic illness. I leave the house may four times a year and that is often to go to hospital or specialist appointments. Oh wow, I'm so sorry to hear that, it must be rough. But you've risen above your circumstances by writing, and you should be commended for that. I hope your book is a great success, you've earned it. Let me know when the cover displays in Amazon and I'll add it to the carousel. I put in the you tube link since I just know none of you are Kiwi's ... Actually there are other kiwis here, and I myself am a Brit living in Canada. So we're pretty cosmopolitan with members from all over the globe.
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Post by joshuachrisstoff on Apr 30, 2012 1:04:20 GMT -5
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Post by joshuachrisstoff on Apr 30, 2012 14:34:26 GMT -5
A few words came to me as I chewed on this some . . .
Success is not the absence of FEAR it is the mastery of it.
F:alse E:vidence A:ppearing R:eal
'. . . the phrase may come from a quote from Winston Churchill, in which he was quoted with saying; "Never, Never, Never give up"' -I have an idea he gave this speech at his former boarding school in England, Eaton if I am not mistaken. He stood, issued these words and then sat down again. Everyone was dumbstruck, especially those who allocated him 1/3 to 3/4 or one full hour to speak for.
"You never fail until you quit trying!" -Thomas Edison was apparently interviewed "He failed to create a light globe/bulb for the ten thousandth time" 'How does it feel to fail ten thousand times?' Edison corrected him . . . 'No, I have just discovered ten thousand ways to make a globe NOT emit light.'
I get the feeling that these people were referring to Point of View. No matter what the circumstances, there a million ways to look at something and describe it. Then there is someone else who thinks it looks like . . .
A prominent Rolls Royce employee was asked what their protocol was when a Rolls Royce had a break down. 'A Rolls Royce never breaks down, however, sometimes they fail to proceed! "POV"
There is an old story or joke and it goes something like this: Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Winston Churchill were having afternoon tea just prior to the second world war. "Look guys, war is expensive, time consuming and bothersome in the extreme. There is a trout in that pond, what do you say that we make the trout the prize and whoever catches it gets the war victory and we can go home and enjoy post war prosperity." Churchill offered.
Mussolini leaped from his chair and ploughed into the pond grabbing and lurching at shadows. He had no chance to catch it and presently he sat back down, defeated.
Hitler leaped from his chair, spotted the fish and commenced to blasting away at it with his pistol. The ammunition was gone and so was Hitler's chance to win the war. Hitler sat back down again, disgruntled.
Churchill calmly rose from his chair, picked up the teaspoon sitting on the table beside his empty tea cup and saucer. Then he bent down on the edge of the lake and commenced at dipping the tea spoon in and getting it full of water, he then tossed the water back, over his shoulder.
-The moral, if there is one, is perhaps no matter how long it takes, if you are committed to achieving the end goal, NUFFINK can or will stop you.
Out of anecdotes! <GRIN>
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Lily
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Post by Lily on Apr 30, 2012 15:36:39 GMT -5
I meant that the cover would have to be displayed on Amazon, Joshua, before I could add it to the carousel, which is only for Amazon products. And no, I didn't aspire to being a kiwi (LOL) but rather that we do have a few members who are. Although, come to think of it, New Zealand is a country which has always appealed to me....
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