They say never to compare yourself to someone else, but it’s difficult not to. Consider the following excerpt from a post to a blog made in the last couple of days.

With only 3 indie titles in the last 2 years, I’ve been able to leave my day job and support my family with my writing income—as our sole provider.

I have put up thirteen items in the last three years, and have had 257 sales and am so far away from doing anything except buy a cup of coffee now and then that I struggle to decide why to go on. I’m not quitting, not yet, just venting frustrations. Short of sinking a bunch of money in advertising, I really don’t know what to do.

In January 2014, so far I’ve had one sale, a paperback copy of the homeschool edition of Documenting America. Not one e-book sale. But let me go check. Maybe I’ve had one since I last looked five hours ago…nope, no sales. In most of 2013 I thought five sales a month was a low number. At this point that seems positively high compared to Nov-Dec-Jan.

I’m forging ahead. I recently completed a one-off short story and decided to submit it to a magazine before self-publishing it. I’m 3/8 through Headshots, and will continue with that through finishing and publication. I’ll work through other things on my 2014 publishing plan, all of which (well, almost all) are follow-ups to things already published.

Friends tell me my writing is good and my books and stories deserve to be read. Here’s hoping the world discovers that some time before I assume room temperature.