Vincent van Gogh once mentioned this same type of frustration in a letter he wrote to his brother, “I can’t change the fact that my paintings don’t sell. But the time will come when people will recognize that they are worth more than the value of the paints used in the picture.”
I subscribe to a couple of art newsletters that help me get things going especially when the Muse has left me or the Self-Doubt monster creeps in. One of those newsletters is written by Drew Kimble of Skinny Artist. This particular newsletter was such a great reminder of how easy it is to stray towards what we think is more profitable versus plugging away at what we were put here to do. Just wonderful.
“The other day I received an email from one of our subscribers, Tracy, who asked me if she should start writing more steamy sex scenes in her books.
You see Tracy is a self-published writer who typically writes mystery FBI investigative type of novels, but she’s becoming increasingly frustrated because she just can’t seem to get any traction in this overly crowded niche.
So she was wondering if she should start writing romance novels instead.
Not just romance novels, but “erotica” novels, which I’m told are kind of like the foul-mouthed step-cousin of the romance genre.
When I asked her why she was thinking about changing to this particular niche, she told me that it was because these novels are typically short and sell extremely well. There’s apparently a huge demand for these type of books, and ebook readers are known to buy them one right after another.
But here’s the thing. Tracy has never read an “erotica” book in her life, and she doesn’t particularly look forward to writing one, but she said that she’s tired of putting all of this time and energy into writing her thriller novels year after year only to watch them gather dust on the virtual shelf.
I mentioned to her that although I’m sure there are a lot of erotica authors out there who are selling a ton of books, she was probably going to make herself miserable if she didn’t have a passion (ahem) for the subject matter.
Look, I think most of us have wished at one time or another in our creative careers that we were a little further down the path towards fame and fortune.
It doesn’t matter if you are a writer, visual artist, musician or whatever. Part of being a creative artist is developing the determination to do your creative thing in spite of the fact that there will always be people out there telling you that it’s a waste of time.
Constantly chasing the latest trends in your niche, however, is not only exhausting but it also can keep us from doing the type of work we were put here to do, even if it’s not selling as well as we would like.
Vincent van Gogh once mentioned this same type of frustration in a letter he wrote to his brother, “I can’t change the fact that my paintings don’t sell. But the time will come when people will recognize that they are worth more than the value of the paints used in the picture.”
Which is why you need to do whatever you can to stay on the path you’ve chosen and not be seduced by the shiny new object (or hot trend) that will inevitably appear glimmering off in the distance.
It’s not always easy, but in the end, you can’t let anybody (including yourself) stop you from creating your art.
Drew :)”
