Authors and publishers are often told to “keep standing” to succeed in the book and publishing industry. It means they must be resilient and persistent in various challenges.
Publishing a book involves writing it, editing it, designing its cover, marketing it, and distributing it. Each stage can throw up different problems or uncertainties – from getting an agent or traditional publisher interested in your work to identifying your target market, making editorial decisions, or facing financial constraints.
Keeping standing is encouragement not to give up, belief in one’s work, a desire for success, and wanting your creative output out there for others to see. It requires you as an author or publisher (or both) not only to keep going despite rejections but constantly improve what you’re doing, tweaking at every step so that your chances of finally succeeding increase with each edit or change.
You also have to stay relevant by keeping on top of trends: current technology advances that might help you reach readers better than before any changes in how consumers want stories delivered (e.g., audiobooks).
None of these should mean compromising too much on what’s important. There is no point in producing something just because everyone else does it. So, if you don’t love the genre, keeping standing is also about being prepared for positive or negative criticism without taking either personally. Use constructive feedback intelligently, then move on. And regularly reassess where things stand – especially when things seem particularly tough.
And should your heart not be in it – if you can’t even summon enthusiasm for creating the best possible book, how can anyone else believe in it? So don’t quit. Keep listening and learning. And keep standing: however long success takes to achieve or how many times doors slam shut.