Without An Abundance Mindset, You're Destined To Fail
Why do some novelists have longevity and others don't?
I’m the arrogant jerk who’s drawn to elitism like so many borer beetles to pumpkin vines. Gravity’s Rainbow? Read it. Infinite Jest? Check. I even understood that one. Don Quixote, Moby Dick, War and Peace? You better believe it!
My first novel was an auto-fiction, fourth-wall-breaking, footnote-saturated, literary romp about sadness and existentialis—
Sorry. I actually just fell asleep a little, typing that last sentence.
My MFA profs told me hacks like Stephen King and Michael Connelly were out to rob blue collar readers of hard-earned cash, and I lapped that off the stoop like the smug cat I was, all the while ignoring, how my heroes worked second jobs, because the books they wrote received mediocre sales, yet instead of writing faster, or marketing harder, they grew bitter that the world missed their genius.
Contrast that with Stephen King who taught a Ph.D-level course on moral philosophy across fifty novels and counting, managed to earn nine-figures doing it, and became the most recognizable face in fiction all while remaining sober and raising a damn fine family.
Call it luck, call it timing, blame it on the changing industry, make any excuse you want, but I’m going to call it what it is: Abundance.
Some authors believe in abundance of stories, ideas, readers, opportunities, and efforts. Other authors blame the system. I know which kind I’d rather be.
(Hey, shameless plug here, my ebook THE SEVEN-FIGURE MARKETING MINDSET FOR NOVELISTS is available for preorder, publication date 1/2/2023. If you buy the ebook and email me proof of purchase, I’ll give you a free copy of the audiobook on 12/2/2022, one month early.)