Can An Indie Author Ever Become a Best Seller?

What does it take to write a break-out book? Something that excites the masses? That makes people feel that your book – and your book alone – should be read? That makes others want to buy the book?

If I knew the answer – I’d probably be well on my way.

You hear all the time that Indie books never sell beyond two hundred copies. In fact, asking an Indie author about the number of books they’ve sold is tantamount to asking how much they pay in taxes. They’d answer the question, but there might be a sour look on their face. And why not? We say we write because we love it. Because we have to do it. But in that small corner in the back of our brain, we also write to be read. To share a point of view. To explore a story that has troubled us, that is nagging to be told, even if it is only our family and friends who are destined to read it.

Okay I admit it. I want to be a best seller.

I want to be invited on with Charlie Rose to discuss how my book literally came out of nowhere. To explore what it is like to have discovered a second career so late in life. To have impacted so many lives with my witty repartee. I imagine myself empowered, insightful, the words and ideas flowing gracefully. I’m fully self-actualized as my writing is compared to the best of Steinbeck, Dreiser, Hemmingway, blushing now and then with due modesty as Charlie insists that I’m brilliant.

Hmm. That does seem a bit lofty. Perhaps out of my league.

Frankly, I’d welcome comparison to the lesser lights. Jacqueline Suzanne, Sidney Sheldon – both very successful. Or – now that I think of it – really any hack just making a buck.

It took me three years to get my novel completed, and now I realize, the trick to success isn’t just writing a great book but getting the book read. So in many ways, I’m starting all over again. Looking around and trying to figure it all out. And yes, writing that next book. Hoping that maybe two books might do the trick. It’s possible. Anything’s possible. Ah – spoken just like an Indie author.