Last week, I attended the 20Books conference hosted by 20BooksTo50k, an organization that supports independent authorship. After speaking and listening to so many successful authors, my brain is practically exploding with ideas and inspiration. And while I know most of you aren't indie authors, there are several things I learned that apply to every industry, and every passion.
1) You have to start somewhere. One woman I ate lunch with was homeless when she started writing her paranormal romances four years ago. She just paid off her house and she’s going shopping for a Tesla next week.
2) Persistence is as good as opportunity. We all know of someone who got "their big break" on the road to success, but most stories are more about hard work despite many obstacles, not one giant windfall. Every successful writer mentioned setbacks and mistakes they made when starting out. But the thing they had in common was that they continued to write, to publish, to become better, and to learn from their experiences.
3) Find your community. Very few successful endeavors come to fruition in a vacuum. You need other like-minded people to cheer you on, inspire you, and commiserate with your setbacks.
4) Don't take yourself too seriously! See the picture below. You're doing something because you love it—don't sabotage your passion by making it work. Life is better with a sense of humor.
Keynote speaker Mark Dawson and 20Books co-founder Craig Martelle
in an inflatable T-rex costume. This is a very serious conference.
Although I’ve self-published five books, I still have a long way to go to be able to be a full-time writer. This is one of the most valuable conferences I’ve ever been to, and if becoming a writer is a goal of yours, I’d highly recommend joining their Facebook group and seeing if this conference is right for you in 2020.