I Want To Be a Bestselling Author

Bestseller.

It has a certain smell to it, a silky feeling, a paradise twinkle, doesn’t it?

It’s the epitome of what words can do.

Create futures, inspire effort, build empires.

Bestseller.

Sometimes, as authors, we are afraid to say we want to write a bestseller.

And we’re even more afraid we’ll never make it onto the bestsellers list — no matter how awesome our book is.

So we settle for less.

We scream about how much it doesn’t really matter.

That we’re really okay with only our grandma and our grandma’s cat reading our book.

That the money doesn’t really mean anything.

That being heard and touching tons of people’s hearts isn’t really one of our wildest dreams.

That’s the biggest lie we tell ourselves.

That we don’t want our words to resonate with the world.

Bestseller.

Nope, not us, we don’t want any of it.

Don’t want our names stamped in history.

Don’t want to write a classic that’ll be read, discussed, and analyzed long after we’re worm food, then dust, then nothing at all when the earth finally smiles its last smile and explodes.

We wave off these things, but in our deepest writer hearts, we want to be well read.

Become a household name.

N.K. Jemisin

King

Gabriel García Márquez

Orwell

J.K.

Ishiguro

Shakespeare

Angelou

We recognize most of these authors without even using their whole names.

We know what they created.

Mention Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans and we know who created them. Who wrote about fake beans that are now real.

And in our most honest souls, we believe we can do the same.

Is it all about money? Name recognition? No, not for most of us. Those are material perks.

Most of us have a soul-burning desire to write. We have a story we want to tell. A perspective we want to leave behind.

But still, honestly, do we really want one reader?

Just one?

I mean, if that were the case, we could read our own books.

One reader. Boom. Done.

No need to market. No need to learn hashtags. No need to spend money on book covers, ads, editing. No need to do any of that.

But we do want people to read our work, and we do want them to like it.

And we do want it to touch them.

Because we want to touch them.

Bestseller.

It’s not a crime to want, but it is a crime to not admit to want.

When we admit, we set ourselves free to attract.

Yes, we want to change minds. Yes, we want to spark conversations. Yes, we want to save lives.

Because we know writing can do those things; it’s done it for all of us.

Bestseller.

Doesn’t just mean money; it means bestselling our inner lives.

Leaving a piece of ourselves in the hopes it’ll add to someone else’s puzzle.

Writing down that internal self that’s locked away, unable to be shared with anyone else.

My hand’s raised.

I want to be a bestselling author.

I want billions of readers.

I want my books in libraries and bookstores and translated into multiple languages.

I want to see tattoos of my characters or quotes on people’s bodies.

Because they were that damn inspired. Because my writing helped them. Because my perspective brightened their day. Because my words pushed them to cry when they needed to grieve.

Made them feel seen.

Made them think.

Made them strive for more.

And I’m not apologizing for that.

But I am working hard to create something worthy of being a bestseller.