"Insecure Writer's Support Group" is a monthly meme host by Alex J. Cavanaugh for writers held on the first Wednesday of every month.
I haven't done an IWSG post in quite a while! It's time I got back on board with this meme, as it is a very cool one.
I think my writing insecurities are all centered around the not knowing ahead of time whether your book will ever sell to actual readers before you publish it (or, get it published). When it comes down to it, reader support for your novel is the most important thing, otherwise there's not much reason for anyone to publish a book for the whole world to read.
Whether or not you want to be "successful" in that you'll sell a lot of copies, you want to be READ. You want readers to notice your book and like it and send you emails and tweets about how much they liked it. This is the validation you want, sometimes more than money earned from selling a large number of copies.
Sure, I want my books to sell well, I'll admit that. Why would I want them to sell poorly? But, more than anything, I want readers to fall in love with my stories and characters and tell me how much they can't wait for the next installment of the saga. That would make my life....
So, my problem is that I don't know if what I'm writing at this time is a story that will find an eager audience at all. I'm not saying I have no confidence in my story, but that I don't like being blind to its real potential. It may be fated to fall like a brick and I'd never know it at this point. That bothers me sooo much!
This is when I can say I envy the video game industry because every developer can put out trailers and information about the game they are currently developing to see how it goes over with real gamers. If they've messed up something, they'll be told by the gamers and they can fix things accordingly YEARS before the product is finished. That's amazing to me. If only something like that were possible in the book industry.
I suppose it is, but only for those with existing large platforms. Someone like J.K. Rowling could get on her blog (does she even have a blog?) and conduct a poll on which of her latest book ideas seems the most appealing to her existing fanbase and they could all weigh in. She could write a book accordingly and it would probably kill it in sales and fan appreciation.
But, that's not possible for me and for most of us writers to get that size volume of feedback from potential readers. I certainly can't conduct any polls when I don't have a readership at all at this point. We have no choice but to shoot in the dark and hope we hit our target. If we don't, we have to keep on shooting in the dark until we do. Seems a frustrating strategy to me. If only there were a better way....
Anyway, that's my insecurity for this month. Does this problem ever affect any of you writers, too?
