It is hard, Malcolm. No doubt. Unless someone has some amazing promo going, most novels land in obscurity and then we need to use marketing and promotion to help them be discovered. Making that discovery happen isn't easy. When early attempts don't work, giving up seems attractive. But if we keep trying, one step at a time, we can turn things around. One of my favorite stories recently is of an author - I wish I could remember the name - who writes in another language. His book was translated and became a world-wide best-seller. But this wasn't his first book. He'd written several, and they'd essentially vanished into literary oblivion. He just kept writing because he's a writer and that is what writers do... but he figured no one would ever read his books. I wish I could remember his name. I saw an article about him in the NYT featuring an image of him looking completely baffled as to why he's suddenly getting noticed. Sales of his previously invisible books are now increasing and people are amazed that there's this brilliant writer no one knew about.

There are other stories like this that we can look at - VanGogh being one of my favorites - where we think if that artist had stopped and given up, what a loss to the world. And yes, VanGogh was a terrible loss.

I just want people to decide I'm a good writer before I'm dead! LOL

Those are great additions, LisaAnne! And yes, my goal with this was to include as many things that we can do safely in this COVID world as possible! And... since many authors are introverts, social distancing is never bad!

This sounds like an amazing class! Is this an LWA class, or a Julia Cameron class?

Thanks, Jessica! I love that class. I get as much out of it as y'all do. Great fun and good writing friends, combined with daily writing. Ah...just lovely!

Thank you so much!

denise