"Everybody's Successful"

Does it bother me that I appear to be the only unsuccessful author among all the Reddit self-pub forum commenters? Yes. 

Everyone I read has at least had some modicum of success ~ even a short story published ~ but mostly even the authors bemoaning their "failure" have sold hundreds more books than me. I feel like posting, Wanna know what failure is, buddy?

I know I'm a good writer. I don't doubt that. I doubt a lot of my abilities and rightfully so, but bottom line, I can write. Good writing just doesn't cut it.

While I agonize over my stories, it seems that anyone (but me) can just throw a novel out there on Amazon and voila! How does that work? Seriously. 

Yes, I know; marketing. Well, I've done that. Inviting cover art? Created it. Intriguing blurb? Sure, my blurbs hit all the "intriguing" points. The only success I've had is from giving away ARCs, and that's not success, unless one counts a handful of positive reviews. Those reviews sure haven't enticed anyone to buy a copy. 

"You've gotta build up your catalog". Do I? Really? Because I've got ten or eleven books in my catalog. How many does one need? 

"People don't buy novellas." Granted. But I have two published novels, and no one ever bought those, either.

"Women's fiction isn't popular." Is that true? It's not as popular as other genres, but there are millions of book buyers out there. Some people even buy poetry books, so come on.

Some months I get a royalty check of two dollars and fifteen cents. Some months I get no check at all. And you know, it's not the money that bothers me. It's that no one even gives me a chance. 

I hate it when people feel sorry for themselves. Believe it or not, that's not the purpose of this post. I just want to understand. And yes, be part of the club. I deserve to be. 

The old bromide that "everyone is successful" is the sympathetic pat on the back other authors give you when your books don't sell. It means, "Just be proud that you published a book!" Please don't patronize me. 

It could be that authors like me who don't sell also don't post on writers' forums. That doesn't negate the fact that a whole lot of authors do sell. No, I'm not interested in reading their books to find out "what they've got". I suspect they have nothing I don't possess. I bet most of those books aren't very good. I write the way I write; those folks have nothing to teach me. 

My bar for success is pretty low. If I could move even fifty paid copies of a book, I'd feel validated.

Looks like I'll need to create my own validation.