Most mornings, I watch The Today Show. Each of the hosts, if not all of them now, have written books and shamelessly promote them on the show. A perfect platform to sell your book with millions of viewers watching daily. The majority of them have written children’s books, as have I. What I can tell you about children’s books is it is mostly about the illustrations. Children, particularly those 5 years old and under, are fairly easy to entertain and you put some thoughtful and inspiring words together, along with a talented illustrator, and you have a children’s book. Not to demean the books they are writing, but remember, these are all people who are already making million-dollar, or close to that amount, yearly salaries.
And then we have Taylor Swift. Yes, she is the new icon especially for teens and younger. I heard she is now a billionaire. What really surprised me was the amount of money each, that means every single individual, spends for not only a ticket but also food, transportation, and other extras such as a souvenir book, is $1600! That was mind-blowing to say the least.
Mind-blowing because I am slowly realizing that I am, without a doubt, in the wrong business. If you know me, you know that I have been in the arts, writing and painting specifically, for years now with my focus on finishing my books at this time in my life. And at a mere $10 to $17.95 a book, I’m just having the hardest time finding my people. It isn’t for lack of getting out there because over the years I have spent hour after hour, day after day, year after year doing what I can to tell the world about my books and my artwork. And I’m getting tired of the whole thing. Jim is reading about getting my books into bookstores and other places and it is a sad reality that the author, unless you rise to best-selling fame, makes a piddly amount of money. And I won’t even begin to talk about how much time goes into the writing, editing, publishing, and then of course, the marketing, of each book.
So, unless something changes drastically in my life, I am considering putting my books, not writing them which I simply cannot do, but printing and publishing them, on the back burner. I ran into a friend this past weekend and I know she has written at least a dozen books in a popular genre, fantasy, but a couple years ago she took a full-time job. I asked if she was getting back to her writing, she kind of shrugged, maybe, she said. I saw the look in her eyes that said, what’s the use? I get it.
If only more people were readers. We are becoming a society that is not as interested in visualizing a different world through the books we read but by having a world already created that we simply have to watch without involving our own creative brain. Just sit and watch.