So, you wrote a book

So, You Wrote a Book. Guess What? No One Cares.

Congratulations!

You did it.

You spent months, perhaps years, writing your book. You rewrote it. You edited it. You changed the ending. You changed it back. You stared at the same paragraph so long that the English language temporarily stopped making sense.

Then came formatting, cover design, proofreading, more proofreading and that glorious moment when you finally worked up the nerve to hit Publish.

You sat back and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Surely someone would notice.

After all, YOU WROTE A BOOK!

Guess what?

No one cares.

I know. That's not exactly the inspirational advice you expected from your old Uncle Al.

But stay with me.

The world doesn't know you wrote a book

Here's the problem.

You know how much work went into your book. You know the characters. You know their hopes, fears, secrets and probably what they eat for breakfast.

The rest of the world doesn't.

To them, yours is one more book floating in an ocean of books written by people they've never heard of.

So naturally, you decide to tell them about it.

You make a Facebook post.

I WROTE A BOOK!

Three likes.

One is from your cousin.

You make a TikTok video.

Twenty-seven views.

You're pretty sure twelve of them were you checking to see if anybody had watched it.

You post on Instagram.

A bot immediately comments asking if you'd like to “promote it on our page.”

Ah, yes.

You've arrived.

Now comes the fun part: marketing

If writing the book was difficult, just wait until you try convincing strangers to buy the thing.

There are thousands of articles telling new authors how to “get the word out.”

Start a blog.

Build an email list.

Make videos.

Join Facebook groups.

Post regularly.

Build your brand.

Create an author platform.

Run Amazon ads.

Run Facebook ads.

Try Google ads.

Give away copies.

Ask for reviews.

Do book signings.

Contact bookstores.

Contact libraries.

Contact reviewers.

Contact influencers.

Apparently, somewhere between writing novels, you're also supposed to become a marketing executive, advertising specialist, graphic designer, video editor, publicist and social-media personality.

Oh, and don't forget to keep writing your next book.

Sleep, apparently, is optional.

But here's the part nobody can guarantee

You can do all of those things and still hear crickets.

I've spent money advertising books and earned nowhere near enough in sales to pay for the advertising.

I've spent hours creating social-media content that hardly anyone saw.

I've posted about my books only to discover one of the fastest ways to make people scroll past you is to begin with:

“Buy my book.”

Why?

Because, once again, nobody cares.

Not yet.

And those last two words matter.

Not yet.

People don't automatically care about our books simply because we poured our hearts into writing them. We have to give them a reason to care.

And increasingly, I've come to believe that means giving them a reason to care about us.

People follow people they enjoy. They buy from people they trust. They recommend people they feel some connection with.

That takes time.

Sometimes an awful lot of time.

And there lies the rub.

How do you make somebody care?

I wish I knew.

If I did, I'd sell you the answer for $19.95, write a book about it and probably make more money selling that book than I've made selling all my novels combined.

Four years later...

More than four years into this adventure, I'm still trying to figure it out.

I've read the advice.

I've tried many of the suggestions.

I've promoted. Posted. Advertised. Talked. Begged. Pleaded.

Okay, perhaps I haven't pleaded.

Yet.

And sometimes, after all that effort, I find myself right back where I was the first day I hit that Publish button:

Trying to convince people that these stories I've created are worth their time.

That can hurt.

Especially when you've put something deeply personal into your writing.

After a while, silence can begin to feel like rejection.

But it isn't necessarily rejection.

Most people can't reject something they don't even know exists.

And that brings me back to where we started.

So, you wrote a book. No one cares.

Well...

That's not entirely true.

You care.

Your friends may care. Your family may care. Maybe a handful of readers who discovered you along the way care very much.

But there's an even more important question.

Why did you write the book in the first place?

Was it because you dreamed of becoming rich and famous?

If so, I'm afraid you may have chosen one heck of a difficult way to go about it.

Or did you write because there was a story inside you that simply would not leave you alone?

Did characters start talking inside your head?

Did a story keep growing until eventually you had no choice but to sit down and tell it?

Did you write because you needed to?

If that's the reason, perhaps we've been measuring success incorrectly.

Millions of people have said:

“Someday I'm going to write a book.”

Many never begin.

Others begin but never finish.

Some finish a manuscript and leave it sitting on a computer because they're terrified somebody might read it and say it isn't good enough.

And then there are those who take a deep breath, close their eyes and hit:

Publish.

If you did that, you accomplished something.

Your book exists.

Your characters exist.

Your story exists.

Whether ten people read it or ten thousand, nobody can take that accomplishment away from you.

Advice from an old man

If you've written your first book, or your second, or perhaps your fifth, and you're wondering why nobody seems interested, welcome to the club.

The struggle is real.

Sometimes it's frustrating.

Sometimes it's depressing.

Sometimes you'll wonder why you're bothering at all.

So here's the advice from this old man who is still trying to figure it out right alongside you:

Keep writing.

Write because you love it.

Write because those stories deserve to exist.

Write because there are still characters in your head demanding their turn.

And if none of those reasons work today, then write out of pure, stubborn spite.

Write to show the world that you believe in your stories even when the world hasn't discovered them yet.

Write because you believe in yourself.

Maybe someday they'll care.

Maybe someday they'll find you.

But until then, don't let their silence decide whether your voice deserves to be heard.

You wrote the book.

You finished the story.

You had the courage to put it out into the world.

And whether the world has noticed yet or not, that's something worth being proud of.

Keep going.

YOU GOT THIS!