As a creative person, you have to allow yourself to be vulnerable. You put out your art, in whatever form, that then gets judged by those who see it. Sometimes, a creative is flooded with praise and glory. More often than not, however, the work is unseen or doesn’t generate the buzz/income the artist hoped for.
Such was the case for me and my last release, Girl on Fire. While it was an Amazon Best Seller for a few weeks, had some amazing reviews, and climbed some small category charts, ultimately, it didn’t perform as well as I (or I would assume my publisher) had hoped.
I got my first look at my royalty statement last week from the publisher, and I will admit, I felt a bit of my creative soul crack. Surely, that number couldn’t be right. Could it? It had to be a typo. And then the crushing blow of realizing the book you thought would finally break through the noise turns into dust leaving you staring in disbelief at a wall. After ten years of writing, was it finally time to throw in the towel? (Melodramatic, I know.)
It was a grim day, my friends.
I mourned. I cried. I licked my wounds. And then…
I cracked my knuckles and opened my laptop to work on my next book. Because if Tick, Tick… Boom! taught me anything, is that the one thing a writer needs to do in the face of a disappointment is to: write the next one.
So, that is my advice to you as well. When faced with a disappointing creative blow, stand up, dust yourself off, and try again. Because ultimately, isn’t a failure just the first attempt in learning? We learn by doing, not by stopping. And I for one, am not done learning. Or writing.
Danielle Bannister a.k.a Dani Bannister, author and puller up of bootstraps.
Danielle Bannister, Author 