Supremely important, Vanessa. This point smacks it right out of the park.

There are days my words move lives and days my work gets two sets of eyeballs. If I lived or died by that measure I’d have died years ago.

Writers- real writers, not wanna bes- write because we have to, it’s who we are vs what we do, and we understand that failure is a deep and enduring friend.

The odd piece that gets curated, then lifted by thousand readers? I’ve done them. Sure I have. I’ve also written two prize winning books that are not best sellers. The godawful POS The Celestine Prophecy was a best-seller.

Talk to any screen writer, actor or producer whose work won an Oscar that nobody bothered to go see. Artistically good, not very popular. Still excellent work.

Then talk to the guys behind a movie that bombed but then became a cult hit because it was so bad. Happens.

We cannot smash our tender writer’s egos on the rocks of others’ unpredictable moods, opinions and general need to dictate our value to us.

We write because it’s who we are.