Recovering The SelfA Journal of Hope and Healing

Fulfilling Your Dreams

How I Became a Best-Selling Author

Guest Blogger: Ken La Salle

I’m going to begin this month’s entry with the phrase “Dreams are funny sometimes,” but I promise that won’t lead to a flashback… well, not much…

Dreams are funny sometimes. My personal dream for many years has been to become a best-selling author. And I gave up a lot of things to make that happen. I gave up acting. I stopped singing in bands. I focused so much on my writing that I even gave up having a normal career in business. (After all the years writing, I just don’t fit!)

And then, last month, it happened! I became a best-selling author!

…only, it didn’t happen the way it was supposed to happen, or the way I wanted it to happen, or even the way anyone in their right mind would have expected it to happen. And I want to tell you about that this month.

As you probably know, I had my philosophical memoir on success, Climbing Maya, published this year by Solstice Publishing. (You can find the ebook and paperback on Amazon and all major retailers.) I knew when I wrote it that it would be a niche book. Books on philosophy don’t exactly fly off the shelves, after all. Sales started slow, very slow, but I kept at it. I got some marketing out there. I made sure it got featured on a lot of websites. I cajoled all of my friends to buy a copy.

Little by little, sales increased. And then, out of the blue, there it was! Climbing Maya was #16 on Amazon’s list of best-sellers! Was it really possible? Had I really made it? … well, yes and no.

You see, Climbing Maya might be a philosophical memoir (and one I am very proud of, in fact) but someone goofed and, instead of being listed as a book on philosophy or even a memoir, it somehow ended up being listed as a book on Ancient Mayan History. Someone had taken “Maya” in the name Climbing Maya a bit too seriously.

And so, I was a best-selling author. I just wasn’t a best-selling author in any genre I had ever written.

It took a few days for that to soak in.

And then, you know what I did? I congratulated myself.

Heck, you bet I did! I don’t care how it made it to Amazon’s list of best-sellers, all that matters is that it made it! Who knows when I’ll ever get an opportunity to celebrate this again? No matter how temporarily it may have been a best-seller (Amazon fixed it shortly thereafter), it was a best-seller!

As I mentioned, dreams are funny sometimes. Just think about it. You set your course for a far-out goal. You follow it and follow it, doing whatever it takes to keep up. And then, when you finally do get there, what happens? Well, I can assure you it doesn’t always end up the way you planned.

But that’s okay. The journey is more than worth it.

Take my book, for instance. When I wrote Climbing Maya about six years ago, it wasn’t because I thought it would be a best-seller. I wrote Climbing Maya because I needed to know what success is. I wanted answers and I wanted to share those answers with the world.

Being a best-selling author is only part of the dream, after all. The bigger part, as it turns out, is in the work. I want to write good books, even if they don’t sell as well as the latest abomination ghost-written for a cast member of Jersey Shore. They can have that. I’m looking for something meaningful, something worth it.

When it comes right down to it, I think you’ll find that true of any dream that you find worthwhile. It’s gotta be meaningful. It’s gotta be fulfilling. If it’s too cheap or too easy, it will never make you happy.

Besides, how else would I have ever become a best-selling author in Ancient Mayan History?

 

Ken La Salle

Ken La Salle

 

About the Author

You can find out more about Ken La Salle at www.kenlasalle.com. Climbing Maya, An Exploration Into Success by Ken La Salle is now available from all major e-tailers by Solstice Publishing.

You can also find The Worth of Dreams/The Value of Dreamers, a compilation of Ken La Salle’s first year with Recovering the Self with plenty of bonus content, available as an e-book from all major e-tailers and coming soon as an audio book. 

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Recovering The Self is a forum for people to tell their stories. Individual contributors accept complete responsibility for the veracity, accuracy, and non-infringement of their reporting.
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