I made more than a few mistakes in the last 15 months when it came to my writing career.
I didn’t take my work very seriously and subsequently nobody else did. When asked about my books, I would get all shy about it and say the books are silly light fiction and ramble a bit about the plot and people would generally nod politely and change the subject. I think I gave people the impression that this was a hobby or a passing fancy and not a job.
It is a job.
Now, if someone asks me of my weekend plans I say in my most confident voice, “when I’m not cleaning offices, I write books and sell them on Amazon.” This gets people’s attention. All positive. People associate me more as a writer at work than a cleaner. Fake it ‘til you make and all that.
The great thing about the advent of e-books is that anyone can write and format a book and put it online. The drawback to such an accomplishment is that people still associate self publish with amateur shit. I wish I had a way to kill this misconception but I don’t.
In all my books the characters are always searching for insight (the characters in my book are much smarter than me and really have their shit together) but I fear I have no insight about my writing except that I produce an excellent product at a fair price.
That’s why I just keep typing away.
Deep End of Stupid 