Some people out there might think once you have ONE contract, the rest is all easy as pie. You see on my homepage I have four books released, and contracts for two more. I must not have any problems with writing and getting my stuff published. Right?
So not the case. Every contract is a new fear of failure. I’ve shot for bigger epubs in the past and have failed. I’ve even had a ‘revise and resub’ from a place I’m already published with.

I like to think that I’ve learned a lot about how to write. What makes for a good story. How to be guaranteed a contract with each and every book I write. But I’m not that writer. I’m also not the writer who has such a ‘name’ that she can ride on that alone.

The best I can do is move on to the next book, the next idea. Resubmit that rejected story to another epublisher and keep my fingers crossed and my hopes high.

What is hard is still having to write to appease a certain audience. I can tell you right now which epubs want what kinds of stories. How you have to write to the market, to a certain degree, even in the smaller world of epublishing. Which can be a real bummer.

But you know what? This readies me for the larger stage. The climb is even steeper with the larger epublishers and the big NY publishers. You have to be prepared to struggle…a lot…before you can succeed.

So, when you see an author with a bunch of books listed on her website…or even just a few…know that she, too, still gets rejections. She, too, works very hard every day to improve the quality of her writing. There is no ‘easy ride’ in this business. If anything, the more successful you become, the harder the job because expectations are set. Instead of coasting along, the bar is set higher and higher.

Most big authors we think of had years of obscurity, books stuffed under the bed, piles of rejections. They’ve done the hard work. Still do the hard work to stay where they are.