f I am completely honest with myself, I published my book seeking some sort of validation. The path to finding readers among family and friends was limited. There were family members that I didn’t trust with my secret of aspiring to be an author—I used swear words in my manuscript, and my deeply-seated religious family wouldn’t

Understand why I don’t see them as sinful.  Numerous of my friends fell into the same boat.

 I struck out trying to find readers with whomever I could trust, but I didn’t expect them to have a lack of trust in me. Most of them didn’t even take to start it. Those that did gave great feedback, giving me confidence that I had achieved something, but… I craved that validation like a drug addict craves his next hit.

 When my small group of trusted readers ran dry, I needed to continue getting that validation, so I sought it from a bigger audience. I didn’t expect for that audience to be hidden in the bowels of a dark cavern on the other side of the planet unable for me to reach. Just kidding! But that is what it feels like when you open the website for Amazon to see if anyone has found your book, only to see that no one has. Especially after you have spent weeks posting on social media in every way that you can imagine to promote it. 

  What I’ve come to realize from the social media platform is that writing is so much more. The validation that I should have been seeking—the validation that technically I already had and should have been enough—was my own. I spent so much time seeking from others what I didn’t need. So any aspiring writers that stumble on this blog, remember one thing: write for yourself and no one else. Then, the rest will fall into place, or if it doesn’t, it won’t matter because you have already been fulfilled.