The wonderful illustration above is from Kate Buss in her Long Overdue book "Little Green Frond." Highly recommend this book any time of year, but especially as a winter read.
Dreams, Goals, and the January Fish
Every once in a while -- usually in January -- I depart from the normal newsletter and go on a journey, wandering around, getting lost, and eventually landing on a vision for the year ahead.
Well, pack your bags. Grab the cross-country skis. We're wandering. We're gonna bounce from comedian Nate Bargatze to the winter of 2009 in Holland, Michigan, to the Upside Down in Hawkins, Indiana. We're gonna talk books, and writing, and ice fishing, and all those secret dreams that we haven't quite given up. And we're gonna do it all in one blog post.
Ready?
Few weeks ago, I was washing dishes, listening to a podcast featuring Nate Bargatze. If you haven't seen his latest Netflix special (Your Friend, Nate Bargatze), please watch it tonight. Same with his George Washington sketches on SNL. He might be the best comedian in the world right now, and he's performing at the top of his game.
Anyways, on the podcast, he talked about how early in his career -- when it wasn't even a career, he was just passing out flyers, not getting paid to perform stand-up comedy -- he dreamed about selling out a big arena in Nashville. He differentiated this as a dream, not a goal.
"Your dreams, you should be embarrassed to say them out loud," he said. "Your goals, you should be embarrassed if you couldn't get them. Your goals should be very attainable."
His big dream felt ridiculous, even admitting to himself. Instead, he focused on smaller, attainable goals. How do I stop passing out flyers? How do I get a paid gig? How do I go on the road?
Each smaller goal got him closer to the big dream.
I'm not sure I had any big dreams in the winter of 2009. I was in Holland, Michigan. Second semester, freshman year. And I was fresh off of a breakup. And I mean fresh. This was one of those crushing, young love breakups, too. The kind that makes you look like a character in a Shakespearean tragedy. The kind that makes you eat cold, unfrosted Pop Tarts.
After four weeks of my heartbroken, sweatpants-wearing, minimally showered self trudging through the snow on campus, inspiration finally struck. It came out of nowhere and hit me like an ice bath in Lake Michigan. Opened my laptop. Three or four hours later, I had officially joined the long line of heartbroken dudes throughout history who channeled their breakup into a poem.
Two-sentence summary - A sad man (cough, me, cough) goes ice fishing and catches a wise fish. The wise fish tells him, yeah, January sucks, and yeah, you could move to a place always warm, but summer feels better once you've weathered the storm.
There are times when you've written something, and it feels different. You know something special happened on that page. You feel good and excited and a little confused because where did THAT come from? Why can't I do that every time? And then you say to yourself, "I need to share this."
I printed out 20 or so copies of January Fish. Placed them in the cafeteria. Ladies, look who's single! Then I took one to my English professor, Pablo. I didn't anticipate myself having this next thought, but I remember very well having this moment of, "Well, what's next? I gave you the poem. Isn't this the part where it goes viral?"
That was my Bargatze moment. My big, unspeakable dream bubbled up to the surface. I didn't want to stop at 20 printed copies by the milk machine. I wanted to see hardcover copies in bookstores. I wanted January Fish T-shirts. I wanted a Disney Pixar movie with my character voiced by Timotheé Chalamet. I wanted, and I still want, to write a bestseller.
But I didn't have a plan. Or any smaller goals to tackle. I wrote it. I printed it. Isn't Step 3 the Tonight Show couch?
If you've watched Stranger Things on Netflix, this analogy might click, but even if you haven't, stick with me here. I think it's gonna work. Setup: In the show, there's the everyday world of 1980s Hawkins, Indiana. But there's also an alternate dimension called The Upside Down. It's hidden from everyday life. But things that happen in The Upside Down impact the real world.
When you're writing a book, or pursuing stand-up comedy, or any creative endeavor, I think there's the "real world" of tangible actions (sitting down, typing on the keyboard, finishing a chapter, starting a new one), but there's also The Upside Down, that sneaky, big, unspeakable dream that's fueling the journey. Even subconsciously.
And what I've noticed, in myself and when working with authors, is the dream isn't really a money thing. It's not "I want my book to be a bestseller; I want it to be a Netflix movie so that I have a bunch of money, a Cybertruck, and my own ice fishing pond." No, it's about sharing the story with more people. Authors love their books like a parent loves a child. They want to put pictures in the Christmas card and show anyone in a 10-mile radius that background photo on their phone.
The problem I'm having, again, both as a writer and a publisher, is I have nice, clean steps for going from rough draft to final draft to published book, but I don't know how to make a book sell thousands of copies. Or one thousand copies. I don't know how to get a Netflix deal, either. I'm wrestling with this as a publisher because I'm a big dream guy. I want authors to dream about Oprah's Book Club and having Harry Potter lines out the door. I mean, how can you be a writer and be anti-imagination?
But I also want to be realistic. The numbers show that with over a million self-published or hybrid-published books each year, most of them sell less than 100 copies. Because of this, I've considered setting that as the ceiling for Long Overdue. We help you reach the finish line, 10-100 copies of your book printed for friends and family. Anything beyond that, you're on your own, kid. Dream big... just not with us.
However, when I'm honest with myself, that's not where I want Long Overdue's story to end. Not at all. When I have the courage to write it -- gulp -- my big dream for Long Overdue is to be as big as Netflix.
You don't know how many times I've deleted that last sentence. It sounds absolutely nuts because it is nuts. And I can't even imagine what the Super Bowl betting odds would be on that outcome.
But you know what, we're at 19 published books right now. Our current goal of 20 would feel embarrassing not to hit. And once you hit 20, then 50 is doable. And so is the jump from 50 to 100. And once you're at 100, well, one of those probably lands a movie deal. Right?
So, that's what I'm working on this year: a path of reasonable, smaller goals for authors to pursue after they publish. For some, the dream might really be the 10 printed copies. A meaningful gift for their family. That's awesome. But for those dreaming of selling more copies, no matter how secret or ridiculous that dream might feel, I want there to at least be a path: Here's what the jump from 10 to 100 sales looks like, from 100 to 250, from 250 to 500. Here's what other authors have done.
A path doesn't guarantee anything. Every author and every book will reach a different finish line. But man, it's fun chasing those milestones. Your first time signing a book is a great milestone. Selling your book to a complete stranger at a book festival, that's a great milestone. A book club reading your work, another great milestone.
And so I'll keep dreaming big, and I hope authors will keep dreaming big, too, and we'll work on these big dreams together, one smaller goal at a time.
Will Long Overdue ever be as big as Netflix? Who knows. Stranger things have happened...
(cue the music)
Keeping up with Long Overdue
Best place to keep up with all things Long Overdue is a tie between our monthly newsletter and our Instagram page. If you enjoy this newsletter and know someone who might enjoy it as well, let us know, we'll make sure to add them to our subscriber list. We also got back on Facebook recently, you can follow us here.
And check out our website - Long Overdue Books. Long Overdue Books is a community for creating books. It's a place for authors (and soon-to-be-authors), readers, editors, artists, and designers to come together and move their stories from ideas to finished books.
Also, if you have any questions, ideas, stories to tell, you can reach Cal the Librarian at - library@longoverduestories.com
