The time is always right for writing, and the first step in getting a book in print is to write it. You can't print what you don't have, so first things first. And so, you write your book. Now what? From personal experience I can tell you that your job as a writer is a long way from finished. Getting it in print is easy enough in this day and age of self-publishing, and you can get that done free or with very little cost. You can get your book on sale easy enough in a number of venues, but that doesn't mean much in terms of sales. Just because it's there doesn't mean anyone is going to buy it. I've got seven books for sale on Amazon at the moment, and so far, that's a waste of time.
Some of my books have sold locally, and the feedback has been good. Most people who buy one book come back and get another . . . and another. I'm learning something from that, which is: you've got to work the market that offers to most promise. Many of my books are about Texas, and that's where I live. I get asked, "Is this book about Texas?" Yes, I can tell them. I always knew that my books of adventure would sell if I could get people started reading them. Texans are big on Texas, and it's only natural they'd like to read about it.
I know several singers down here in the Lone Star State that make a very good living without ever leaving the state. They don't need Nashville or L.A. or New York because they've tailored their music to fit Texas. One of these performers could draw big crowds outside the state, but he seldom crosses state borders to do that. He's working the audience he most appreciates . . . and they sure as hell appreciate him. With a population of close to 25 million, three of the top ten largest cities in America, there's opportunity enough right here. That's the reading audience I'm going after, and Texans do like to read, especially if you're writing about something they understand.
I write about contemporary cowboys, and there's is no state in the union with more of them than Texas. I write about rural life, about common, ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. I write about the average guy's struggle for survival and about his occasional rise above the commonplace. I write about the plight of the little guy, and I take shots at the power brokers and politicians and corporate businesses that screw things up for that little guy. I'm a writer with a populist zeal, but I'm not a crusader or champion of virtuous causes. I just tell it like it is (or how I see it) in terms of looking from the middle up . . . and down. And I always try to find some humor in almost everything. I'd rather leave the reader with a smile than in tears. I'm a cautious optimist, a writer who likes to give the ordinary citizen something to feel good about. And I'm all about Texas.
I don't mind, of course, if anyone else reads my books. I recently found a review of one of my books online . . . being sold in Europe. Yeah, baby, that's what I'm talking about. Maybe I can export a little of Texas other places. There's more to us, you know, than just bragging.
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