What A Mid-Life Crisis & Indie Publishing Taught Me About Focus

Today’s post comes to us from author Ron Vitale. Ron and I met a couple of years ago on the Twitter, via a mutual friend Jessica Lawlor. Since then, we’ve bonded over a shared love of reading, writing, and Anne of Green Gables. In the past five or so years, Ron has self-published more than six books of fiction and kept up a blog, all while working a day job and being a present and engaged spouse and father. What he has accomplished is impressive, and I invited him here to talk about how intense focus has helped him get to where he is today. Here’s Ron Vitale, in his own words.

I had my mid-life crisis at 38. I realized that I had written the first draft of a novel when I was 16 years old, and over the next two decades or so, I re-wrote it multiple times, shopped it around to agents and publishing houses, but it was rejected up and down the block. At 38,  I had abandoned my dream of becoming a writer. With probably half my life gone, I wondered: What was I going to do with the rest of my life?

From as far back as I can remember I wanted to be a writer. I still have, buried in a drawer somewhere, my first science fiction story that I hand wrote back in elementary school—complete with crazily drawn pictures of the various aliens in my story. My writing was horrible, filled with lots of exclamation points, and my drawings still make me cringe. But I didn’t give up. I wrote more stories, then the novel, and more stories. Over the course of near thirty years, I tried to play the publishing game and had failed.

When I turned 38, I realized that I needed to make a decision: I either had to accept that I had given up on writing, or make a dramatic life change and become the writer I always wanted to be.

I had followed the rules and submitted queries out to publishers, ensuring that I didn’t simultaneously submit my work. I would then wait several months before I heard anything back, and in some cases, I never received a response even though I included my SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope). Those were the days when there were gatekeepers in the publishing world and I foolishly believed I needed to follow their rules. I always thought that someone would discover me, mentor me and then the world would see what an amazing vision I had and embrace my work. But at 38, none of that had happened. I had a bunch of stories, lots of articles out there that I had published, but no book.

I remember the day in the winter of 2009 in which I promised myself that I would bring my personal laptop to work, close my office door during lunch and crank out a few words of a book idea I had. That day was pivotal for me. But for the many, many years before that I had allowed myself to become stuck. I had no focus. My misalignment with my goals and beliefs trapped me in a hole that I could not escape. Instead of letting go of my first novel, I kept focusing on it and did not write another series. I wanted to write a sequel but that that would be crazy, since if I couldn’t get book one published, why would I write book two? I floundered, lost time, did this and did that, but still no action.

When I made the conscious decision to focus and write a new book in a different series, with a snap of a finger, my worldview changed. Instead of waiting for someone to approve of me, accept me, and the gatekeepers on high to welcome me in with open arms, I sidestepped all of that and decided to join the indie publishing movement.

Why had I wanted the publishing world to legitimize me? The answer is simple, but hard to admit: I had no faith in my own writing ability. I lacked the belief that I had what it took to be a good writer. I was afraid of failure.

I truly believed that the publishing world had the power to sprinkle magic fairy dust on me and then suddenly the world would see me as a true Writer (yes, that’s with a capital W).

To overcome my fears, I focused and re-doubled my efforts. I did these three things:

• Made a public announcement to friends and family that I was writing a book and promised myself (and them) that I would finish and publish it.
• Set a schedule. I wrote several times a week before work. And when I didn’t feel like writing, I gave myself the ability to skip some sessions, but I needed to work on a weekly word count.
• Gave myself the freedom to write whatever the heck I wanted. This was important—especially for the first draft.

Now in looking back over the past few years, I focused on my goals, accomplished them, and achieved more than I had thought possible. But I’ll be honest: The journey so far has been filled with years of hard work. My first book sucked, and so did my second, but by the third, fourth and fifth—I started hitting my stride. I have a long way yet to go as a writer, but I’ve come so far. I’ve also learned much about online marketing, the digital conversion of books to ebooks, and have built a reader base through my mailing list. What I came to realize is that the publishing world no longer has the resources to market and support many new authors. If I had decided to go with traditional publishing, I’d still have to do most of the marketing anyway (social media, online advertising, building up my blog, website, etc.).

My writing goal, from the beginning, has been to share the worlds I create with a message of hope across the globe. And in the years that I’ve published my books, my dream has been achieved. One of the most touching emails I have received is from a reader who is fighting MS. She’s shared with me how my books have been a great source of comfort to her as she struggles with symptoms of the disease. Knowing that I have helped her and others who have emailed me, has helped me put in perspective the reach my books have had so far.

With focus and determination, I’ve overcome my fear—one word at a time.

Ron Vitale was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Influenced by the likes of Tolkien and Margaret Atwood, he began writing at an early age, creating short fiction from his Dungeons & Dragons role-playing sessions.

His writing has appeared in various places from elephant journal, SFWA’s The Bulletin and SEARCH magazine. He is the author of the new adult series, Cinderella’s Secret Witch Diaries.. Currently, he is keeping himself busy by writing his blog, and on learning how to be a good father to his kids all while working on his next novel. Read more at www.ronvitale.com.