I said going into this whole indie publishing process that I wasn’t going to worry about how many of my books sell. I wanted to put my book out there, market it as best I could, then get back to writing more.

I’ve now checked my sales chart about 100 times.

Once it’s out there, emotions kind of took over. Why isn’t everyone buying it? What if everyone who does read it hates it? Or what if no me actually reads it in the first place?

Fortunately, I’ve recently had a good reminder about patience. This thing called indie publishing is a marathon, not a sprint. You’re building something from scratch. It takes time.

I’ve thought of two examples of this from my writing life. When I was a cell phone salesman in a mall, I used to write a series of short stories. I used to print copies of them and hand them out to other mall employees. By the third or fourth one, I had people begging me for the next installment.

Not everyone did. Some read one installment and never mentioned it again. But others couldn’t wait for the next in the series. It was they who motivated me.

A more recent example: Last night I went on a Poky Pedal ride – in my job as a newspaper reporter, we used it as a meet and greet for readers to get to know me a little. Several people told me they love my articles. “I love all your stories,” one of them said. Later at a school board meeting, which I’d never covered, the board president asked my name. Another reporter there said “Wow, that’s the first time I’ve heard anyone ask you that. Everyone knows you!”

I bring up those examples because they illustrate the point. It wasn’t like that in the beginning. It took four years before I was able to earn that reputation. I used to hear, ” who’s this new guy?” Now I hear “B.C. will get to the bottom of this!”

Like many things, building an audience is a marathon, and I just started the first mile. Nothing to do but relax, pace myself and keep plugging away.