The below video has profanity. NSFW.

“I would be out here crying sometimes. Nobody buys your book in the beginning, nobody supports you in the beginning. You have to keep after your pursuit of happiness. Nobody’s gonna give you nothing! And eventually what happened was you sold one book today. You only sold one book because only one person would buy your book.  But you sold that one book. That one book! And don’t you know when you come back next weekend you got ten people looking for you.” – Teri Woods, author of True to the Game

Teri Woods was one of the first writers I saw who self-published and did so successfully.

One day while home from work, I caught her on an episode of Montel Williams and was impressed by her story and how she sold thousands of copies of her debut novel on the street and by word of mouth. Her story resonated with me because it was around that time I decided I wanted to write a novel. I’m not sure I’d even heard of self-publishing before then but I was impressed with her drive. This was long before social networking was popular. Long before Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. As of today Teri has sold over 300,000 copies of True to the Game.

So how did she do it?

If you watched the video, the one thing that should have stood out was her hunger. That undeniable desire to succeed. And I would gather to say, that hunger needs to be evident in all writers. This isn’t an overnight process, it takes an investment of time. That hunger will give you the drive to work another day towards your goal.

At times this might feel like an uphill battle.

But for the amount of time and effort put into writing a manuscript, you want your book to be successful.

So how hungry are you?

Teri understood her market, the people who would actually read her book. She knew what her demographic looked like, talked like and even dressed like. Knowing her demographic helped her to focus her time on people who’d appreciate the genre she writes (street-lit).

Teri self-published in the days of traditional marketing.

Now think about the advantages you have as a writer today. There are literally millions of people on the Internet and some of them WILL be interested in your book.

Tomorrow we will discuss revamping your marketing plan when you’ve tried everything and it hasn’t worked. So how hungry are you? Please share in the comment section below.