The Dream vs. the Reality

The dream...

Dear Readers,

According to an Authors Guild survey in 2023, the median gross pretax income from authors’ books was $2,000 a year. As in twelve months. Any author reaching the U.S. poverty level baseline ($15,960) is considered an overachiever.

Yet many of us cling to the dream of becoming one of the extremely rare few to break through and achieve wild popularity—think Stephen King, John Grisham, or, dare I say it, J.K. Rowling.

At the same time, we somehow believe we can toss our latest book into the world, retreat to our writing cave, and have readers magically discover our magnum opus. We picture critics actually using those words—magnum opus—instead of “get it for .99 on Amazon."

Though my head is usually in the clouds inventing plots, characters, and imaginary worlds, I've gained enough experience to recognize that my dreams and reality have no overlap.

So this time, I've vowed to get serious about marketing.

Did you hear I was interviewed on a podcast? Well, I’m telling you now, here it is. It’s my first podcast interview and if you think it’s too long, I have this shorter one on my website. Jill Ferguson is a delightful interviewer. Despite discovering an unsettling similarity between the behavior of our ex-husbands, we shared quite a few laughs. At one point, I think I sounded like I knew what I was doing.

I'm also doing library talks. I've started visiting local libraries with my latest book. There are a lot of local libraries. An alarming number, really. After visiting three, I was exhausted. I have hundreds more to go, but I’m on it.

My husband Brian is helping. He drives us around in a classic car that he picked out, and because he has an English accent, people naturally assume he's my chauffeur. Sometimes I call him “James.” This makes me appear far more successful than I am.

We're targeting senior centers too, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. Seniors are my audience because I'm a senior and my protagonist is one as well. The book is all about senior empowerment. It’s an easy sell at senior centers, but like libraries, there’s at least one in every town. This may take five years, but I’m on it, along with my chauffeur.

...the reality

The really big whoop this month is the American Library Association Convention in Chicago, June 27–29. My book will be displayed at the Independent Book Publishers Association booths (#2329 and 2429), and I'll be working there some of the time. If you're attending, please stop by and say hello. The worst that can happen is I’ll thrust a postcard advertising my book into your hands.

With your help, I can turn the dream into the new reality. Then I can go back to my cave and write another book.

❤️Margie

If you haven’t read Not My Job Anymore, you can find purchase options at margiebenedict.com. 

If you have, and would like to help other readers discover it, please follow this link to where you can leave a review. It won’t take long, I promise. https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review/?ie=UTF8&asin=B0GZ7H3JMN 

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