Your Story Matters

There are many stereotypes about self-published authors and one of the most insidious ones is that self-published authors just aren’t good enough or rigorous enough for traditional publishing.  You and I know that this couldn’t be farther from the truth.  You’re reading this blog post because you care about writing, and you want your story to be the best it can be.  And if you care about your writing and your story as much as I think you do, it’s probably going to be even better than many traditionally published romances are.

The reality is that the work and money involved in self-publishing a high-quality romance novel are daunting.  There are so many tasks and so many skills that are required that have nothing to do with the actual craft of writing.  You probably started writing romance because you have a story to tell, and because you love writing. 

When you started, you probably had no idea that you would also need to be a marketer and an interior book designer and a publicist and a social media whiz and an editor and an agent and a scheduler and a publishing expert.  And there might even be days when you feel like throwing the towel in on the whole thing.  Or days when you think it just isn’t worth doing anymore.  But I’m here to remind you that your story matters.

Your story matters because it’s yours, and because no one else can tell it in just the way that you can.  Your story matters because someone out there needs to hear the words that you have written in the way that only you can.  Your story matters because there are readers out there who have been searching for something that they haven’t found in anyone else’s stories, no matter how good they are.

Do you remember those moments, as a reader, when you read the right words at just the right time, and they hit in a different way?  When you realized that you were not the only one who had thought, felt, or experienced something in a certain way?  When you saw your own struggle reflected in a book and it helped you make a different choice?  These are just some of the reasons that your story matters.  I want you to grab a post-it note and make a list of a few books that really hit hard for you, and I want you to keep it somewhere you’ll see it, as a reminder of how much stories matter.  And how much your story is going to matter to someone else.