After signing up for Udemy, a fantastic site that makes learning anything from computer programming to creating your own website, easy, I was intrigued by some of the courses on self-publishing. Barring a couple of really good ones,  I discovered that a lot of them focus on becoming an overnight success as a self-published author.

Now, if you've been in the business of writing, whether it's advertising or journalism, for a reasonable amount of time, you'll know that there are no short cuts to making money or becoming a best seller on any platform, no matter what an odd success story tells you. And an odd success story is just that, an aberration.

But a few of the courses on the site held nothing back in goading aspiring authors to just start writing, mainly 'how-to' ebooks. Subject no bar, apparently. 'Do research, if you don't know the subject, that's what the internet is for', said a confident person in a course. I'm sure hundreds of hopefuls are right now searching for 'brain surgery in 3 easy steps' as we type/read, so they can make tons of cash. Advice is dispensed with reckless abandon and I'm quite sure it's taken with sincerity and optimism as well.

Maybe they were targeting aspiring millionaires who wanted overnight success at any cost so they can retire in the secret millionaire's club after their first book. Someone even suggested just writing anything and getting it out there; even if there were typos, it was ok, the person declared.

Which goes completely against established, successful authors such as King and Bradbury, who, if you read their books on writing (not 'how-to books' I might add), stress in no uncertain terms the importance of mastery over the language and  attention to detail. But these seem to be minor details to be glossed over in the age of get rich while you sleep. That's another favourite phrase these guys use, 'you know, you can make money while you sleep?'. Logic being, someone, somewhere is buying your ebook as you lie in your bed dreaming of your favourite cocktail with your favourite Hollywood heroine. But that has been happening for a long time. I don't think successful authors stay up all night, every night, wondering who is buying their books. Even the vampire book guys don't do that I suspect.

Point is, like with anything in life, you have to learn the trade, apply yourself, follow good role models in whichever field you fancy, and give 100% to just doing the job. You can resort to advertising, social media messaging, creating awareness through blogs etc, but you can't just write any drivel and expect to become a success. Even if you did, as truth is stranger than fiction and how-to books with typos, people are not going to wait with bated breath for your next ebook.

'Keep writing' is the advice great writers leave aspiring authors with, but if you are aspiring for overnight success, good luck with that.  

Well, for starters, you and I write them. And we are complete non-entities in this ever-growing sea of self-published authors. I must tell you why I’m writing this piece. A newly published author in a facebook group I belong to, was expressing his frustration at his e-book not selling to his expectations. A familiar story, you’d agree.

So I told him we are all in the same sea and all we can do is just keep writing as many books as we can; make sure the stories are well thought out, well written, proof-checked, and properly formatted; advertise, get the word around and leave the rest to the Universe.

I told him that I have written a short story collection, two children’s story, (with 50% of the proceeds going to elephant conservation as the main character is a baby elephant), a ‘how-to’ book on creating an e-commerce website, and another short story. I have advertised on facebook, Google Adwords, Bing and posted on my facebook status page. I put them up at all the major e-tailers, and created a dot com website from which people could buy direct. Let me tell you, I am not laughing all the way to the bank yet. It’s still at a frown stage, hopefully, it will crease into a smile, then widen into a maniacal laughter at which point the security guard at my bank might want to check my sanity before letting me in.

The point is, we are writers. And like a lot of the now-famous authors say about the days before stardom sought them out to the bestseller list, a writer writes, no matter what. Stephen King wrote in a trailer park. Ray Bradbury on borrowed typewriters in local libraries. Joseph Heller took eight years to write the masterpiece Catch 22 which was ironically rejected 22 times. You should read the list of famous rejection letters if you want inspiration.

The reason we must keep writing, is that it’s unwise to stop at one. Even if it gets picked up by the publishers in a freak coincidence, what next? Are you going to say, ‘Sorry, I could only do one?’ So the more you have, the better the chances of selling. At least people checking out your profile on social media and e-tailers might be impressed enough to try one of your offerings, and if they like it, they might even buy more.

Like someone said, there are two situations in life: one where you can control and another where you can’t. And in the latter scenario, the only thing you can do is control how you react to them. Tearing your hair out, getting frustrated and yelling out the window will not help. It might give temporary relief, but, in the long term, it will drag you down.

Another anecdote comes to mind, about this student who was impatient to learn the art of sword fighting from a Zen master. Student asks the master how long it would take him to be good at it. Master says ten years. Student says he doesn’t have that much time and that he needs to learn quickly. To which the master says in that case it will take twenty years.

One last dip into the philosophical river to shore up the morale. It’s from the Bhagavad Gita, Song of the Lord, a sacred Hindu text (part of the epic Mahabharata), where Lord Krishna, Bhagavan, tells Arjuna the reluctant warrior that his duty is to fight and leave the fruits of it to Him. The essence of it was expressed in the Rober redford movie titled the Legend of Bagger Vance with Will Smith playing Bagger Vance (Bhagavan) and Matt Damon the reluctant golfer was R.Junuh (Arjuna).

So keep writing and let the sales happen as and when. If we focus on the writing, the rest will take care of itself.