Writing Persistence Might Pay Off

I love to write. If I didn’t, I would have stopped long ago. Unfortunately, writing persistence doesn’t always pay off, usually doesn’t in fact.

Millions of books are published every year. Most of them are read by a handful of people and disappear. Even those published by the publishing companies can meet this fate. It is far more common for self published books like mine.

Goat Games cover
My first book was done for fun. It started as a lot of puzzles about goats, then added breed pages, interviews and more. It has been reworked to make it much more professional. It still contains lots of information about goats and goat care. I do hear some of the puzzles are more difficult than I intended.

Lots of websites, books, blogs and more offer to help writers avoid this fate. After all, one of the goals of writing persistence is for other people to read the resulting books.

First you need a website. Then you need an email list and a newsletter and advertising and more books written and book reviews and a social media presence and on and on and on. This takes time and money.

Broken Promises
My first novel took several tries. The first version was terrible. This one came together after my nephew, Brendan Smith, P1C Marines, was killed in Iraq. The novel turns on how Hazel Whitmore deals with the death of her father.

Rural Missouri is like many rural places in the country. Internet service is not very good and expensive for the poor quality substitute offered. The other option is public access spots in town.

Making the trip to town means losing a day to get needed chores and repairs done at home. Since I milk, I must go during the day so time is even more limited.

My second science book was completed last March. Using the same format as “The Pumpkin Project” it has puzzles, trivia, investigations, activities and stories about where people get and use and dispose of water.

The only parts of these recommendations I can manage are the website, Pinterest, Goodreads and more books. The rest is faith that my writing persistence will eventually pay off; that people will notice my books and try them out.

So far I have 14 books completed and self published. Each has sold a dozen or so. Each is offered in print and as an ebook. Dr. Rintz, my companion author, has five serious botany books sharing my website. All are available only in print.

"For Love of Goats" by Karen GoatKeeper
Tongue twisters are such fun. They are a great way to learn new vocabulary and learn to speak clearly. They are challenging. “For Love of Goats” is full of tongue twisters, short fiction and humorous memories about my own goats.

My writing persistence continues as I slog through “The Carduan Chronicles” which will end up as two books, one being the arrival of the Carduans and the second the beginnings of their colony.

For November I am reviving a project from years ago that I kept telling myself I would get back to and somehow never did. It is a series of six books about the Planet Autumn and very science oriented. “Prelude To Autumn”, the first book is in full rewrite now. The second book “Mounzz of Autumn” is slated for a draft in November.

Having survived illustrating “For Love of Goats” I decided to tackle my first picture book. It was conceived as a nature book about some Ozark creatures, but took a few different tacks in the watercolor illustrations.

For 2020 I completed two books. The science book called “The City Water Project” and the picture book called “Waiting For Fairies”. My 2021 plans are for “The Carduan Chronicles: Arrival”, “Prelude to Autumn”, Mounzz of Autumn”, “The Chemistry Project” and another illustrated book of which maybe three will get done.

And I’m still holding onto the wish that my writing persistence will pay off soon.