Publishing is a noisy business. People are constantly blogging about what you should do, what you shouldn’t do, how to do all those things right, how to reach more readers, how to build your brand, what the best practices for marketing are, where to advertise, how to advertise, which genres sell the best, what color your socks should be. Okay, not really that last one. I just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

The irony of this post’s title in combination with the opening paragraph isn’t lost on me. But keep going, I’m about to drop a little reality bomb on ya:

The only thing that really matters is the story.

So when you feel overwhelmed with decisions about what font color to use on your cover and how to increase your ROI on ads and where to promote your next novella, you have my permission to shut all that down and focus on the foundation all writing careers are built on: the story.

Everything else is periphery. I promise.

Now go forth and write! Questions, thoughts, suggestions? Leave ’em in the comments.

  1. Absolutely! All I want to be is a writer. That involves other activities by necessity, but whenever I find one of them taking precedence over writing I know it’s time to reign it all in and get my mind back to the book.

  2. HELP! I’ve lost my creativity! I used to rush home and write until midnight, sometimes later, but now ‘blah, blah, blah.’ What to do?

  3. I’m glad to have my own thoughts confirmed by an author I admire. Someone told me a few months ago not to worry about the next book. I knew in my heart that was not good advice. Love your books, have all of them on audible and ebook. A fantastic escape.

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