My conversations with a good and accomplished author friend have provoked some serious musings.
If the definition of serious success for the kind of art you do does not match up to your expectations for yourself, does that mean your definition of art or success needs adjusting? How you answer this will be affected by many things in your life.
What is your definition of art in writing novels specific to your genre? The reason I include "specific to your genre" is because if your genre is Literary as opposed to Cozy Mystery or Science Fiction, the definition of how each is written as an art form is decidedly different. And within your genre, if your audience hasn't found you yet in the millions of novel offerings out there, you cannot always put the total blame upon yourself. People spend thousands of dollars on marketing and suffer the same dismal consequences. Marketing is a 50/50 shot with fiction. And there are simply no guarantees of "success."
When you write in multiple genres, do your established audiences transfer with each genre?
I certainly do not have satisfactory answers to these questions. Thoughts?
Father, apart from you, I cannot do anything, write anything, think anything. You are the inspiration and the process for all I do, and thank you is never enough. Never has been or will be. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.