Last night, while formatting on MS Word, I was watching a clip of Salve Duplito’s speech in some kind of conference for ANC’s On The Money. One thing she said that struck me – as an author – was how it was in our culture not to talk about failures. I agree. She also goes on, saying that’s a shame, though, since we can learn a lot from failures. I agree as well.
So…here goes. A list of my failures (as many of them as I can remember):
Copyright
I don’t regret writing for my publisher, but I do regret giving away my copyright so easily. Without her, I wouldn’t be where I am now – or at least I wouldn’t get to where I am in the same span of time. Then, she had the resources (money and know-how primarily) to advertise my books. I didn’t.
Packaging and Marketing
Probably my greatest mistake in packaging and marketing here is my vampire series The Master and His Soul Seer Pet. I’m seriously proud about my work here, but I also seriously failed when it comes to marketing. Ensnared came across as erotic, Beholden came across as more like urban fantasy, but my cover screams YA fantasy romance while my title’s meant to hit both NA and paranormal romance audiences. In other words, a melting pot of disasters. Just thinking about this makes me…aaaargh. *wince*
Hence, I’m wrapping this up early and then I’ll go back to the drawing board and see how to repackage it in time for the second arc.
Passion Projects
I’ve been vocal from the start how Drawn is my all-time favorite among all the books I’ve written. I’ve just been as vocal in admitting that it’s not exactly my bestselling book. Given the chance, there are a couple of things I would have done differently. It’s not a complete failure but it’s definitely no blockbuster success either. And I admit that.
My Silver and Lace series is just like it, too. They were books I wrote out of my love for manga (hello again, otaku peeps like me) but this time I tried not to repeat the same mistakes I did with Drawn. But still – fail. >.< I already lowered my earning expectations, but results were still disappointing.
However, I don’t have a free book to boost sales for Silver & Lace yet so I’m not giving up, and that brings me to my next point.
The only time you really and irrevocably fail is when you quit. You’ve no doubt heard that before it may come across as a cliché, but it’s true. It will always be true. I don’t think there’s any point in your career that you won’t make mistakes. But that’s all they are – mistakes. Things you can learn from and use to do better next time. :D
As such, if you did something wrong today, yesterday, last week, last year – accept it, learn from it, and move on. Tomorrow’s another day to do better.
So…here goes. A list of my failures (as many of them as I can remember):
Copyright
I don’t regret writing for my publisher, but I do regret giving away my copyright so easily. Without her, I wouldn’t be where I am now – or at least I wouldn’t get to where I am in the same span of time. Then, she had the resources (money and know-how primarily) to advertise my books. I didn’t.
Packaging and Marketing
Probably my greatest mistake in packaging and marketing here is my vampire series The Master and His Soul Seer Pet. I’m seriously proud about my work here, but I also seriously failed when it comes to marketing. Ensnared came across as erotic, Beholden came across as more like urban fantasy, but my cover screams YA fantasy romance while my title’s meant to hit both NA and paranormal romance audiences. In other words, a melting pot of disasters. Just thinking about this makes me…aaaargh. *wince*
Hence, I’m wrapping this up early and then I’ll go back to the drawing board and see how to repackage it in time for the second arc.
Passion Projects
I’ve been vocal from the start how Drawn is my all-time favorite among all the books I’ve written. I’ve just been as vocal in admitting that it’s not exactly my bestselling book. Given the chance, there are a couple of things I would have done differently. It’s not a complete failure but it’s definitely no blockbuster success either. And I admit that.
My Silver and Lace series is just like it, too. They were books I wrote out of my love for manga (hello again, otaku peeps like me) but this time I tried not to repeat the same mistakes I did with Drawn. But still – fail. >.< I already lowered my earning expectations, but results were still disappointing.
However, I don’t have a free book to boost sales for Silver & Lace yet so I’m not giving up, and that brings me to my next point.
The only time you really and irrevocably fail is when you quit. You’ve no doubt heard that before it may come across as a cliché, but it’s true. It will always be true. I don’t think there’s any point in your career that you won’t make mistakes. But that’s all they are – mistakes. Things you can learn from and use to do better next time. :D
As such, if you did something wrong today, yesterday, last week, last year – accept it, learn from it, and move on. Tomorrow’s another day to do better.