Being an indie author or traditional author, or a mix of both called a hybrid author has never been better. We as writers have been gifted with so many gifts that, if it was back 10-20 years ago, many of us wouldn’t be writing. I know I wouldn’t. Just the amount of information that is at our hands, from making research easier, so we sound like we know what we are talking about, to just finding affordable and reliable editors and proof readers online, that can help to improve the work that we do.

The cover art I have for my first book Origins, is so beautiful that without the help of the internet and my team at streetlightgraphics, I would have never got it done. I can’t help but do a little dance every time, I see my book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I wrote that book a while ago, and it still hasn’t sunk in yet, that my fingers created a work of art that people from Brazil to Canada can enjoy.

I have read a lot of books and memoirs by guys that, wrote before the pre computer age, and it still amazes me at how skilled you had to be, just to put words to paper. You either wrote by hand or used a typewriter.  The amount of mistakes you could make, must have been minimal or you would have had to write the whole thing out again, and again till you got it right.

I think that’s why you had so many masters of the craft back then. When you are putting in thousands upon thousands of hours, into your craft without the distraction of the internet or Facebook, you get a single determined focus that is hard to replicated today. (I still wouldn’t want to go through what they did, I love youtube to much.)

I feel blessed to live in this time, and be able to use all the tools that are available at my disposal to create what I want to create. Without any restrictions what so ever.

You as the author, have the power to choose your own cover, write what you want to write about, be it superhero books to erotica and release it in whatever stores that you want to release it in. We have absolute power in deciding our fates and the fates of the people we write about.

How can you not love that! If you are either a writer or a reader.

But there are some writers that are now complaining, about how hard it is to produce. I just don’t understand the logic behind it. If you mean that the kindle gold rush (shudder)  is over, than this business was never for you in the first place.

Between 2010-2013, no writer could do no wrong because the lack of content that there was. You had new devices like the nook and kindle, but not a lot of data to fill them. So any homemade cover with a shitty blurb and no editing in sight, could be an ebook best seller. And with amazon in those early days, basically just giving away money to authors, like they were lap dancers made of gold, everyone was loving it.

But that could only last so long. Now after five years in, shit done changed. And only the cream rises to the top. There are a lot of blogs that tell you how to get their much better than mine, and like I said before, I want this blog to be for the readers. But the only word I will use to describe it all, is be professional.

You have to be professional, if you want to succeed in anything that you do.

And I am truly happy that it’s got to this point because, it makes the reading experience better for the customer. It only gives them the best stories to spend their hard earned cash and time on.

But regardless of all this, I still don’t think we have seen how big ebooks will become.

This only dawned on me when I released my new book and asked friends and family to download it. Many didn’t know that you could download the kindle app for free, on any smartphone or computer and use it. I still think we are only at the tip of the iceberg, and in the next five to ten years things are going to explode.

The younger generation will led the way in this, but man, I believe things have not yet even gotten started, on how big this whole thing will be.

Before starting this journey, there was never a doubt in my mind that I could write a book, or that I would make it as a full time author.

None.

Not one.

The reason is because, I have seen how so many other people have done it, and if they can do it, then I can do it to. I have read books, where I stopped 5% of the way in and thought really …. this is what you put out?

Success and luck isn’t something that only happens to the very few,  you create it out of hard work and a lot of sacrifice. Writing is one art that you can get good at, by just practising over and over every day. I write every day because by doing that, it makes me better than the rest.

This isn’t like being good at a sport where if you don’t have a physical advantage, then you have no chance. Art is so subjective, that there will always be a fan base for whatever you do.

If you just practice that beloved art enough then you will make gains in it.

Stephen king has a saying that there are bad writers, competent writers, good writers and great writers. And that whatever category you fall into, you cannot become any better. But I believe that bad writers can become competent writers, it just takes time to practise and learn your craft till you are one.

Can you go from competent to good or great? I have my own thoughts on that, but I think thats another discussion for another day.

The one thing I know is this.

I don’t care if it takes me, 10, 30 or 100 books. I will have enough work out there that I can’t be ignored. And I can make a difference to the people’s lives that are in my life. All it means is that I have to grind it out, till I see the results.

One book at a time.

Origins is now free everywhere. Download it, love it, hate it, scream at it. If it invokes any emotion in you at all, I am winning in my eyes.

The worst piece of art, is the art that just makes you go MEH!

Anyway until next time folks.

Love and peace

Y’all