A recent Sunday came around, the end of my writing week, and I genuinely wasn’t sure I’d hit my goal. I’m a total spreadsheet geek, and I track everything in spreadsheets with graphs, so it’s not a guess; it’s a number I can watch. And like most of us do when a number doesn’t cooperate, I didn’t stop at “I might miss my goal this week.” I kept going and spiraling to: Is this relaunch going to work at all? Was starting an author business on top of everything I do a mistake?
That spiral sent me back to a tool I’ve used for years to plan and evaluate businesses: the Lean Canvas, a one-page business plan broken into nine boxes. In a recent Honest Author episode, I pulled out one of those boxes from Lean Canvas, “Unfair Advantage,” and applied it to writing, publishing, and marketing.
What I didn’t explore much there was something I noticed while building that list: no two successful authors I’ve observed have had the same advantages.
Not one identical pair. And yet almost all of them share three traits underneath whatever advantages they happen to have. Patience, persistence, and perseverance.
I don’t think that’s a coincidence, and I don’t think it’s a throwaway line either. Here’s what I actually mean by each one, and why I think they matter more than which advantages you start with.
Everyone has different advantages, but they all share one thing.
I’ve seen authors build real careers in different ways. Some had a backlist before joining Best Book Monkey. Others brought an audience from a blog, newsletter, or career. Some could design their own covers. Others simply had a vivid imagination and wrote more than anyone else. No two success stories look exactly the same.
But what all these authors have in common is how they used whatever advantages they had. That’s what matters most, because it’s something you can work on, no matter where you start.
Patience
Patience means understanding that this journey takes time. There will be delays and setbacks, and that’s normal—not a sign that something is wrong. I’ve seen authors come to BBM with one book, run a promotion, and then quit soon after. They were upset because they thought success would come quickly. The gap between their expectations and reality discouraged them, not the industry itself.
Patience isn’t just waiting around. It’s what helps you keep building your strengths, instead of giving up when things don’t work out as fast as you hoped.
Persistence
Persistence is about showing up and doing the work every day, even when it feels repetitive or dull. If you’ve finished even one book, you’ve already shown real persistence. That’s an advantage you should recognize.
It’s also important to notice where persistence is encouraged and where it isn’t. Plenty of courses and coaches focus on finishing a first draft, but fewer cover the rest of the process. Getting through that first draft is tough, but you need the same persistence for publishing and marketing, not just for writing.
Perseverance
Perseverance isn’t the same as persistence, even if people mix them up. Persistence is about daily effort. Perseverance is the commitment to keep going through bigger setbacks and failures. Every author I know who’s built a real career has faced tough moments, wanted things to be easier, and kept going anyway.
What actually happened that Sunday
I sat down, did the work, and beat my goal for the week. The only real difference between feeling stuck and reaching my goal was that I kept going. It was a small, quiet example of patience with a process that isn’t straightforward, persistence in doing the less exciting tasks, and perseverance in not letting one tough week define the whole relaunch.
Whether you’re just starting out or have been at this longer than I have, it helps to look at what you’re really working with. Don’t compare your list to anyone else’s. Instead, know your own strengths well enough to trust them, even when things don’t go as planned.
