3 Hats an Author Needs to Wear to Succeed…

Honestly, if I knew that it would take over fifteen years to become a published author I would have thought long and hard about whether I should go down that road less traveled. But I did. And the truth is that you can’t buy this experience. You digest it. You absorb it. You bleed it.

What I’ve learned in those fifteen plus years is worth more to me than any university degree I could ever earn. The skill of actually writing and crafting a book is such a process that it takes years to glean, and once completed no one can take that feeling of accomplishment away from you. NO. ONE. I’ve also learned that a writer must wear three different hats if he or she wants to succeed in this crazy writing business.

Hat #1: Asks what I am skilled at doing? I imagine this hat like a hard hat you’d wear at a construction site. This is information that you and you alone must discern. Use your natural abilities or skills that will serve you in your writing business. Good at blogging? Do it! Great at sharing information to help others achieve their dreams as well as your own dreams? Go for it! We can’t be good at everything. We just can’t! Understanding where your skills lie will help you tremendously when you seek publication or if you decide to go it alone.

Hat #2: Asks what do I enjoy doing? Yay! This is a fun hat! I imagine this hat looks like a jester’s cap with bells. Do what you love, love what you do. These are the tasks that you find rewarding. Plan a novel. Plan a whole book series. Write that first draft. Only you know what makes your heart beat faster and brings you joy, and once you figure that out then as cliché as this sounds, the world is your oyster.

Hat #3: Asks what can I uniquely contribute? This is a more serious hat for me—a fedora perhaps—business-like and serious. Do you want to write something of value to share with the world? Or just with family and friends? Will your books be useful (read: sell) in the marketplace? Do you have a business plan mapped out and ready to go to take your readers on fantastic journeys? In the end, it’s all up to you to determine what you can give, and how you want to go about doing it.

In dreams, hats represent the attitudes you show others most, your mental outlook, your various jobs, talents, personalities, and aspects of yourself. Hats reveal how you cover up or display what you really think or how you protect your ideas. So what kind of hats do you think you’d wear to succeed in the publishing business? Love to read your comments! Cheers!

Now, where did I put my jester’s cap…