TS. I wrote this post back in 2012….seven years ago. But most of it still holds true today.
Okay, so now you have a publisher…your books will fly off the shelves or through cyberspace, right? Au contra, it’s still going to take some time. Or at least, that’s certainly been my experience….
Samuel French (biggest publisher for stage plays) picked me up in 2004 and has since published four of my stage plays. I am so grateful to be in the same publishing house as Louisa May Alcott, David Mamet, Anton Chekhov, and Tennessee Williams. And the staff is so nurturing to their authors. But, here’s the reality: No sales the first year, a few the second year, more the third year and so on…….but, sadly, no BIG immediate discovery of this playwright! Not like in the movies!!
So I kept writing and editing and submitting……and writing more!
I am happy to share with my readers the news that I received a nice fat check from French with reports that reflected my biggest sales period EVER, the first quarter, this year (2012)! Over the last six months they have sold seventy scripts of mine. Most orders
were in multiple quantities which means a theatre company was buying enough books for cast and crew. And that means that somewhere, out in the world, theatre companies are producing my work! You might be saying to yourself, ‘that’s not so many’ but think about it. That’s 11.6 scripts per month. And like I said, most of them were NOT perusal copies 
(of one) but the number that they would need to produce a show! One production in Bangor, Maine and the other in Phoenix, AZ.
Last year (2018) a play of mine was produced in Iceland and the UK.
My books are finally selling with some welcomed regularity on amazon.com (USA and Europe) and other book outlets. After eight long years!!
So my message to you is: Keep writing, fellow writers. Keep editing, rewriting. That’s where a really good story/book is born. When you get rejection after rejection (as I did) let that be the spur to write more! Use ‘Self publishing’ . ‘Vanity’ books are a thing of the past…or almost. Most of us, as writers, have something important to say and vanity is far, far away from our thoughts. With the advent of ‘print on demand’ self publishing is not the huge investment it used to be. I self publish for less than $100. plus the wholesale cost of the finished book. Sure your publisher takes a cut…but! You’re published!!
Writing is a lonely business but keep at it. I’ll believe in you if you’ll believe in me!
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