It’s not a competition … except when it is …

• Posted in On Writing

It’s not a competition.

Those are the words that my significant other said to me last night when I told him about the myriad of book work I was attempting to accomplish.

My response? Oh, babe. It is so a competition.

Karma Girl comes out May 1, and I have been busting my ass for the last six weeks trying to get stuff done. I’ve set up book signings and advertising and guest blogs. The last two weeks, I’ve spent about three hours a night stuffing envelopes and mailing out bookmarks to readers’ groups and bookstores around the country. Oh yeah, and I need to work on Bigtime 4 too. And my paranormal spy book. And get ready to do interviews. The list is endless …

Evidently, the way I was explaning things, my significant got the impression that I was in a contest with myself to see how much work I could do — and how crazy I can make myself. That’s not the case. I’m in a contest with all the other authors out there.

Every single one.

Because we all have books to sell, and folks only have so much disposable income. I’m a newbie, a nobody really. People don’t know who am I. They don’t know what my books are about. They don’t know that they should give me a chance to dazzle them with my brilliance and campy, fun books.

But I can fix that. And that’s what I’m trying to accomplish with all this stuff — getting the word out. And I have to compete with all the other authors already out there who want you to buy their book instead of mine. I have to compete with the other newbies scrambling for position and the heavy-hitters who already have their fan bases in place.

In short, we are all single women at a wedding, jostling and kicking and clawing in an attempt to catch that elusive bouquet — in this case, a loyal reader and climbing sales.

Don’t get me wrong. I love writing. Love books. Love reading. Love talking with other authors. Love helping people out and spreading the word about books that I’ve enjoyed or authors I think are cool stand-up people.

But I never forget that this is a competition.

Call me cold. Call me cruel and calculating. But by hokies, I want another contract. And another … and another … And if that means that I have to stuff envelopes until the wee hours of the night and visit the post office every single day for the rest of my life, well, so be it.

Folks might not buy Karma Girl, but it’s not going to be for lack of trying on my part. I’m going to work as hard as I can for as long as I can. So consider me your friendly neighborhood ubervillain, Jen-Jen, whose mission in life is to inform you about her books … and take over the world one reader at a time.

So yeah, babe, it is a contest — one I hope to win. And hey, world domination is always fun. 😎

What about you? Do you think of writing as a contest? A sublime experience? Inquiring minds want to know …

3 Responses to “It’s not a competition … except when it is …”

  1. Meljean says:

    I do think of it that way, sort of. My next one comes out June 5, and I’m looking at all of the other great books coming out at the same time, and thinking: okay, what can I do to get you to buy mine instead of theirs? And crying a little inside, because I KNOW that some will automatically choose the other/familiar authors over me.

    On the other hand, I also think that one book leads to another. Someone buys another vampire/demon book, doesn’t get enough (either because it’s bad or good), so they go pick up mine. I think that’s the lucky thing about readers, especially in these genres: we just can’t seem to get enough, and once we find what we like, we get as much of it as we can.

    That there’s nothing quite like your superheroes out there right now I see as a huge bonus — not much competition in your specific sub-sub-genre.

  3. Jennifer Estep says:

    I know exactly what you mean. They are so many awesome books out there already, and more being released every month. I don’t have time to read all the ones that I want (like Demon Angel in my TBR pile). And then you realize that you have to compete against all the other awesomeness. It’s so overwhelming trying to break in. Sigh.

    And I think that if I had a book coming out in July this year, I would just curl up in bed and whimper. Because all anyone is going to be talking about that month is Harry Potter.

    I hope one book leads to another. But that’s the good/bad thing about writing something different like superheroes. There aren’t any other books out there that might lead people to mine. And how do you get folks to try something different? It’s a double-edged sword. Like I said, I’m just trying to get the word out and hope that folks at least try Karma Girl.

    My cover does rock. And so do yours. 😀

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