Last month I entered one of my recently written and unpublished
novel on Kindle Scout, hoping that Kindle Press would publish it and I can win
the $1500 of advance along with additional marketing from Amazon. Sounds like a
great deal, doesn’t it?
Well, I did not win.
However, I’m beyond grateful towards everyone who nominated
my entry and helped spread about my book. To see the orange “hot” tag on my
book day after day was the best feeling ever.
You must be wondering when I would start ranting about why I
lost or when I would start saying that losing it was the best thing to happen, or
that winning a Kindle Scout doesn’t really matter in the long run. This post is
not going to be about all the things. It’s about something that I discovered
through this experience of putting my book up in front of everyone and waiting
to hear the results since the day I applied.
Three years ago when I was frantically applying for doctoral
programs, a rejection letter like this would depress me for days, leaving me
incapable from working on more applications. But today, I don’t feel the hurt I
used to feel. My book got rejected and somehow, this failure does not bother me
at all. Instead, I am already planning what to do with the book, when to
publish it and go through a final edit.
I suppose I’m starting to see the truth in what many
successful people have said during interviews and in their biographies. When
you love what you’re doing, outside opinions and perspectives stop mattering.
It’s the doing that gives you joy. Everything else takes a backseat.
For me, writing and publishing my books give me great joy.
It’s an even greater pleasure to see people reading my books and appreciating
the story. It doesn’t bother me if someone tells me they don’t like my stuff
because I’m not doing this to gain someone’s approval. I am writing because it
gives me joy. It’s days of hard work, but at the end of the day I am left
feeling satisfied and fulfilled. At the end of the day, that is what matters.
This experience has opened my eyes to my own feelings about
what I am doing. Here’s hoping I’ll see more success for the book in the
future.
