In my introductory blog post, I wrote that I don’t have any expectations for what this writing blog will become and I haven’t yet established any specific goals for it. You may contend that not having an expectation for the blog does not jive with me calling it “Expectant Writer,” and I’d be hard pressed to disagree. But I have chosen that title because I am a driven and internally motivated person. I expect that my writing will be successful. Which is not to say that I am entitled to it being successful, but rather than I plan to achieve success in this area by force of will.
How we got to this point
To that end, my first two books, Stop Putting Out Fires and Building a Better Law Practices, have been mild successes in their own right. I have wanted to write a book for a long time. I just never knew what it would be. So after I’d been blogging for a while, I had an idea that I could aggregate some of the content into a devotional-style daily-reader-format book for lawyers. I pitched the idea to the American Bar Association, and they liked it. Nine months later, the ABA published my first book, Building a Better Law Practice. The very fact that the book exists makes it a success for my accounting. I learned a great deal throughout the process of writing, editing, and having the book published.
One of the things I learned is that I want more control than having a book published through a traditional publisher allows for. So when I got ready to put together my next book, which became Stop Putting Out Fires, I knew that I wanted to indie publish it. I released Stop Putting Out Fires into the wild a little more than a month ago. Sales have been fine, but nothing special. It hit “best seller” and “#1 new release” markers in a couple of law-adjacent categories on Amazon. But at this point, I’ve basically broken even on the production costs. I consider this sophomore effort to be a success. I published it the way I wanted to and got it into the marketplace without irretrievably screwing anything up along the way.
Where we’re going from here
What will I count as a success for books 3 through 10 (or however many I end up writing — but I currently have ideas for 10 books)? I don’t know yet. But as they get closer to entering the world, I assure you that I’ll develop a vision for what their success is. And I will expect of myself that I will achieve it. I am an expectant writer, and I’m going to share with you my successes, failures, and all the things that happen between those points.
