Failing & Trying

Last year, the US published over 4 million books. Never have there been so many authors, and never have there been so many authors with decent to excellent marketing skills. All around Instagram, stunning character art commissioned by authors is thrown at you, and all around TikTok, authors hook you in with all the reasons you should buy their books. And have you seen their Instagram grids & book covers? In one word: stunning.

But when everyone knows what to do and everyone does the right thing, how could you possibly stand out between those thousands and thousands of books published each day? The hard truth is: most of us can’t. We can’t all succeed at everything. Because ‘failing’ is a part of life.

And that is a tough pill to swallow. Recently, I’ve seen some posts by authors being depressed about the lack of sales. But we’re not entitled to bookish success. We’re not entitled to great reviews. Not entitled to blockbuster sales. No one owes us anything.

Should we stop trying..?

Scratch that, someone does owe you something, and that is you yourself. My philosophy in life is something Pastor Bobby Schuller often says.

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“Be all that you can be. Not less than you can be.”

– pastor Bobby Schuller

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So, with this philosophy, I owe it to myself to explore my talents. Y’all, it’s been such a great journey to write A Legend in the Sky, and I’m pouring so much of my heart into its sequel (set to release in 2027). And because I love my books, wholly and thoroughly, I feel I owe it to myself to give them the best fighting chance.

I’m not going to lie, I was disappointed in A Legend in the Sky’s reception upon release. And when you see other debut authors get a lot of buzz, it can be discouraging that your book isn’t connecting like that with the readership.

Why isn’t it connecting? this is my hypothesis:

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• The prose
  • Maybe some don’t find it accessible enough; it has a poetic feel
  • Third limited POV
• The characters
  • My FMC is black (a turn off for some non-Black readers), but my MMCs are not black (a turn off for some Black readers).
  • My FMC is soft & sweet (a turn off for those who want stabby and fierce)
• The romance
  • It’s not a romance book (the romance is a subplot) but it is aimed at a female audience in a time where romantasy rules supreme. Finding the niche audience for this book is extremely hard.
• It’s self-published
  • Some have said this book leans YA (I don’t promote it as such and you will see why in the upcoming books) and YA is a trad pub dominated genre. For many of those readers, social proof is a must.
• The book just isn’t for the current generation(s); i.e. people do not ‘get’ my art. (That’s okay btw, I also don’t get some art).

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I continue to do my best marketing this book, but even when you’ve studied all the marketing tips religiously, one thing you cannot copy is the little thing called ‘luck.’ At least, that’s what most people call it. I call it ‘fate.’ What’s meant to be will be, and what’s not meant to be you will not get. No matter how hard you try.

Still, when publishing a book, I do think we need to realize that not every book is a good fit for every generation. For example, The Great Gatsby was famously considered a failure, as it sold poorly and received mixed reviews. It was only decades later, after the author died, that the book gained popularity and subsequently was elevated to an American classic.

So with this in mind, a little flame of hope continues to burn in my heart that one day there will be a generation who will connect with the Gemini Stones trilogy. For now, I’m managing my expectations. I will finish this beautiful trilogy and pour my heart and everything in it, and I will continue giving readers the most beautiful book covers and interior formatting.

Perhaps my upcoming series after the Gemini Stones trilogy—which I’m very excited for!—will connect better with the current generation(s) <3.

In Dutch we say: ‘Het leven is niet maakbaar,’ which translates to: ‘Life cannot be engineered.’