When my boss pulled me aside I expected her to commend me on all the money I was bringing in.

“You do good work,” she said. “But you stopped doing your best work.”

I was upset at first, but then I let her criticism sink in. She was right. I stopped caring about the quality of my work, and started doing an assembly-line of clients. In and out, in and out–my work became a revolving door of mediocrity. I was getting sloppy.

That lesson taught me to always send out my best work. Right now I have a small reader base, but that doesn’t give me an excuse to just throw my next book together. My readers deserve better. 

So as I’m going through a major re-write of my book, “Unbeweavable”, I’m giving it my all. I’m not writing a good book, I’m writing the best book I can.

“I’m just too busy,” some reply. 

“I can’t answer every one.  I don’t have the time!”

Make the time.  If someone takes a few minutes out of their busy schedule to tell me that they loved my book, you bet I will extend the same courtesy. 

I’ve written or e-mailed some of my favorite authors and I’m always surprised that they write me back.  One such author is Barbara Delinsky.  I sent her an e-mail praising her latest book and two days later I got an e-mail back from her saying thanks.  She also took the time to remark on the bad weather we’d been having in Houston.

Wow.  I was blown away.  I didn’t care if she personally wrote me back, or her assistant simply did the job, the point was that she took the time to answer me.  I became a reader for life because of that.

Thank you goes a long way.  It can ingrain on our readers brain that we appreciate them.  We make them feel important, because they are important. 

Take a few minutes to answer your readers.  They’ll thank you for it.

Guess what?  It’s the same with writing.  Not everybody will be a fan of my writing.  But one thing I learned early on with hair, was to attract the kind of client that would love my work.  Say for instance, I love to do soft, flowing long hair, then I would work hard to attract those kind of clients. (Actually, I did like doing hair like that. A lot.)  I wouldn’t bother trying to win over someone who liked their hair short with electric blue spikes, now would I?  It would be a waste of my time.

With writing, we won’t be able to win over readers that don’t like our genre.  If we write science fiction, then we are writing to people who like science fiction, not romances.  We have to find the readers that like our kind of writing–whatever kind that may be.

I’m still learning my style, finding my voice as a writer.  But I know the kind of reader I want to attract.  It’s a saying in the hair business that: you attract the kind of client that you are.  It means that if I’m a professional business-type stylist, then those are the clients I attract.  If I’m covered in tattoos and love heavy metal, then those are the clients I attract.  In essence, we write the kind of books that we would read ourselves.  Not everyone may like it, but the people who do–will love it.  So keep writing, and the readers you attract will be the readers you’ll come to love.

Okay, so you’re wondering how in the world can styling hair have anything to do with writing?  The similarities my dear are several, but today, and the weeks that follow I’ll share how they are one in the same. 

My first day of being a hairstylist I did a lot of things, but none of them required doing hair.  Why?  Because no one wanted to try their hands on a newbie.  They preferred the hands of a professional on their head.  So I spent most of my first day watching and learning from the more experienced stylists around me.  Some would call that a waste, but for me I felt I used the time to sharpen my skills so when a client did dare to sit in my chair, they would be satisfied.  It took years before I had a solid clientele but when I had one they were beyond loyal and stayed with me for years.

The point?  (And yes, I do have one.)  Writing is the same thing.  When we finally get our first book published we are basically sitting and waiting for someone to spend their hard-earned dollar on us, a newbie, and hope that they will be satisfied with the results of our book.  And while we are waiting to gain readers, as writers, we should be out there reading and learning from the ones who have already been in our shoes and have the readers to boot.  We should be spending time developing our craft and getting better and better with each book we write.   Otherwise, what’s the point?

Do you feel that writing is like doing hair?  What do you think?