Small Victories

Small victories.

I like them.  They keep pushing me to move forward, to not get discouraged.  I think I have a problem.  I tend to over share my small victories.

For instance, I co-authored an anthology call Our Indie Experience.  Check it out, it's absolutely a wonderful read.  And so much fun to share my story with my fellow Indie Book Collective members.

I digress.  Back to the issue at hand.

The e-book hit Amazon yesterday afternoon.  I got an email saying that we were already in the Top 100 in Authorship.

#WHEW-HOO

I called my mother and a couple of my good friends to share this amazing news.  I mean, my name is on a book that had hit a bestseller list.  Why would I not be excited?

I didn't get the response I was expecting.  I didn't even get 5 minutes to bask in my excitement.  Because apparently if my name isn't the only one listed as author, it doesn't count.

WHAT?

Calm down.  It's ridiculous, I know.  But that's the response I got and my balloon of excitement quickly deflated.  Honestly, for the rest of the day, I felt a little down and my feelings were genuinely hurt...until I realized that what they think doesn't matter.

That's right.  What family and friends believe about what we do as authors just doesn't matter.  To them, a great review or significant tweet doesn't mean anything because they don't see the big picture as we do.  Writing is our passion.  It's our dream to have people excited to read our books.  It's not theirs.  Until they see something tangible, i.e a royalty check, making it onto the NYT Bestseller list, being mentioned on their favorite day time talk show (I have no interest in being in Oprah's bookclub) then the small victories don't matter.  You're still the same old person wasting time pursuing a dream.

I'm learning the hard way not to care what people who are close to me and NOT part of my critique group think about my small victories.  It's difficult not to call up a friend or 3 when I finish a chapter that I've spent a week struggling with.  I know they're "great, on to the next one" reply will only make me feel bad about celebrating.

The important thing is to take time to recognize and celebrate small victories but only do it with people who understand the importance of baby steps...other authors.  We're a unique bunch but we just get it.

It's nice to have someone who does.