I’d gotten in on the self-publishing industry just as it was taking off and published a few novels. For a little while there I was making money off my work and my son had even ran into someone that recognized his last name and wanted to know if he was related to the romance novelist.
I kid you not. Amazing, right!?
It was like a dream come true but it was also short lived. Soon after, the market became overwhelmed with too many books, traditional publishing made a major push back in order to keep their doors open, and little old me got lost in the shuffle.
I’m so glad to have been able to live out my greatest fantasy for that short time. It was an opportunity that would never have come my way if I’d lived in different times. However, it was also a lot of build up; years worth of rough-drafts tossed aside, just to find myself a one-hit wonder (well, okay, it was three books, to be fair).
Fast forward to today and not only am I in competition with the thousands of novelists out there and fewer people reading than ever, but now that AI has taken over, people can have a program write them a novel, tweak it a bit, slap their name on it, and toss it out there. If it doesn’t swim but sink, no problem. They can just make another one.
It takes me–the relic that I am–a solid year to too write and draft a novel, and that’s if I work at it with conviction. 😕
The time has come when I simply can’t compete. Every card in the deck is stacked against me. Writing my own work out of my imagination and effort puts me in a place of disadvantage in this forward driving culture. I’m not sure my old friend, Edgar, would have survived it either.
Not all is lost. I have a good life. I don’t have a lot of friends I’ll admit, but my family connections are tight and I sleep with my best friend, so I mean, SWEET. I did get to live out my dream, even if only for a short time.
Life goes on. The sun didn’t explode, and the moon is still orbiting. 🌛
It looks like I’ll be alright. ❤️
Darcy Branwyn 
Leave a comment