Hello, Mr. Gaiman. Fat chance you'll see this, but do you have any advice for aspiring trad authors? I wanna be peak successful. Really leave my mark on the writing community & the world. How would I go about doing that? Could you break it down in, say, ten steps? Or perhaps just share some words of wisdom?
1) write your own books. Don't try to be like anyone else.
2) Write your own books. When you finish writing a book, start the next one.
3) Write your own books. Don't worry about the rest of the writing community only about yourself and what you make
4) write your own books. It's not a competition.
5) write your own books. Say the things only you can say.
6) Write your own books. Don't get bogged down in the commercial success or failure of a book in the long term. All that matters is the artistic success or failure of what you made.
7) Write your own books all the way to the end. So many frustrated and failed writers don't get through step one, where they finish writing books people might want to read.
8) write your own books.