Every Minute You Write Counts

Over at The Passive Voice, PG has a long-running post about indie authors quitting their days jobs. The original reached the maximum number of comments WordPress would allow, so PG started a second one entitled "Indie Authors Quitting Their Day Jobs - Redux.

One writer was frustrated that she had only two books out. She literally had only her lunch break to write due to day job, family obligations, etc. This is the answer I gave to her comment on TPV:

[Writer}, I don’t know if you’ll pop in here again, but this is for you and anyone else in the same position. 

I’ve been there. Really, I have. 

That forty minutes? Those were the rare days I actually had a lunch hour. 2004 heralded the first novel that will forever remain under the proverbial bed. 2005 thru 2010, I produced four novels in between working full-time, my special needs child’s six surgeries, and my own serious illnesses. 

And no publisher or agent, big or small, wanted those novels. I got the same rejection over and over again. “Love your style. Love your voice. I can’t sell this.” 

It was discouraging. It sucked. But I kept at it. 

Then Amazon came along, and the rules of the game changed. I found people who enjoyed my snarkalicious heroines, and holy cow, they were willing to plunk down their own hard-earned cash for my stories. 

[Writer], those forty minutes each day add up. The words add up. No one is an overnight success. Not Joe Konrath. Not Hugh Howey. Not me. We all succeeded in our own way because we made those forty precious minutes count. 

Trust me, keep making your forty minutes count.