We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Robert Peecher. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Robert below.

Alright, Robert thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

Perseverance and mindset are the two biggest attributes to success, in my experience.

Most people go through peaks and valleys, and it’s important to remember that the journey doesn’t have a destination. Success is not a place that you get to. It’s a road you travel. And even when you’re standing on a peak, there’s a pretty good chance the next valley is right in front of you.

I spent about 25 years as a newspaper reporter and editor. I had a good career in journalism. For the last nine years of that career, I owned a small weekly newspaper. In 2012, four years before I sold my newspaper, I published my first novel. It was a fun hobby for me, and I treated it like a hobby. I made very little effort to sell books, and my income as a novelist reflected that. Over the course of my first five years as a novelist, I earned almost exactly $1,000 in royalties.

When I sold my newspaper, I remember a friend asked me what I wanted to do next. I told him all I really wanted to do was write novels. I’d been averaging $16 a month in royalties, and you can’t pay rent at $16 a month. So it seemed like an impossible dream.

That’s why mindset matters so much.

When I changed my mindset and believed that it was possible to earn a living writing novels, I started to find a way to make it happen. I stopped telling myself the reasons I couldn’t do it, and started finding the reasons I could.

I learned more about the business of writing and selling novels. I became purposeful in what I was writing and how I was trying to sell it. Within about eight months of making the decision that this is what I wanted to do and switching my mindset to believe it was possible, I was earning my living as a full-time author.

I firmly believe that the recipe for success is to put in the work, not to lose sight of the goal, and believe the goal is achievable.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’m a storyteller and a writer.

For a quarter of a century, I told stories in newspapers. About ten years ago I started publishing novels. I’ve written more than sixty novels.

Most of my novels are traditional Westerns — horses and cowboy hats, six-shooters and gunfights. I have written a few thrillers set in modern times, but most of my novels are just good ol’ fashioned Western pulps.

I grew up a reader. I read a lot of James Bond novels and Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels. I’m a fan of George MacDonald Fraser, Louis L’Amour, and Elmore Leonard.

Though I’ve written novels and short stories since high school, I started publishing novels mostly on a whim. One of my college professors (Wayne Glowka) who I’d kept in touch with over the years published an epic poem of the Texas Revolution titled “The Texiad.” He published it through Amazon’s self-publishing platform.

Around the same time, I was writing a humor-based series about the American Civil War. This was a passion project for me, and I didn’t expect to do anything with it other than throw it in drawer. But on a whim, I decided to publish it through Amazon. It’s a quirky series that didn’t find much in the way of readership, but it was the spark that ignited my career.

After five years and a half-dozen or so books, I found myself unemployed. I’d sold the newspaper that I owned and needed to find something else to do with my life. The world of newspapers was changing dramatically, and I didn’t feel at home anymore.

I piddled around with some other ideas, but in the summer of 2017, I came across a group called 20Booksto50K on Facebook.

This group is mostly self-published authors who are serious about the business of self-publishing. Some of them do very, very well as independent authors.

I spent about a week looking through some of the posts in that group where these authors talked about advertising and book marketing, and I told my wife I thought I could make a go of it.

I spent six months doing nothing except writing. I wrote seven books during that time, and in January of 2018 I started publishing those books.

By March of that year, I was earning a full-time income.

In the last five years, I’ve written something in the neighborhood of fifty books. I write fast, and I publish often, and I love what I do.

I’m also incredibly fortunate that I have a dedicated following of readers, and I’m so grateful for them.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

It sounds pretty easy when I say that I sold a business and started earning a living from writing novels.

It wasn’t easy at all. I foundered after I got out of newspapers. I knew I wanted to write novels, but I didn’t think it was even possible to earn a living doing that. In my mind at the time, that was an unattainable dream.

I spent several months earning little to no income. My wife and I burned through our savings just to keep the lights on. We had three teenage sons at the time, and life was expensive and difficult. I tried a number of things to earn a living, but nothing was particularly successful. I had resumes out all over the place, but I wasn’t getting a call back.

Honestly, for the better part of about 18 months, we really struggled financially. It was a hard time for me personally, too, because my entire identity through my adult life had hinged on my professional role as a journalist. I was proud of the work I did. I loved being a husband to my wife and a father to my sons, but first and foremost I identified as a journalist.

When all that was gone, a lot of my self-confidence went with it.

But when I saw the path forward for writing novels, I changed my mindset. I believed what I wanted was possible, and that renewed outlook brought renewed energy and drive, and definitely renewed confidence.

I’m still sometimes amazed when I think about that conversation with my wife when I told her that I was going to try to write novels for a living. She had every reason in the world to tell me to get a job or she was walking out. But she just shrugged and said, “Okay. I’m with you.”

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Without a doubt, when a reader reaches out and says that one of my stories affected them, that’s the most rewarding thing to me.

I was at a writers conference a few years ago. Readers who had followed me on social media knew I was going to this conference because I drove cross-country to Las Vegas and made some stops along the way at significant Old West historical sites. I posted about the stops on social media.

The first night at the conference in Vegas, hanging out at the bar with other writers. We all went around and said what genres we write in. When I said that I write Westerns, one of the guys reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone. “What did you say your name was?” he asked me.

I told him again, and he turned his phone around and held it up for me to see. This guy I’d never met before had my name in his phone. His dad had sent him a text: “If you meet Robert Peecher at the conference, tell him he’s one of my favorite authors.”

That was one of the coolest moments for me. That doesn’t even seem real.

Beyond those sorts of interactions with readers, one of my favorite things about being a creative is the lifestyle.

I often write late at night. I stay up until 3 or 4 a.m. working. I work in my pajamas sometimes. I walk the dog in the middle of the day while all my neighbors are at work. I’ve made several research trips to Kansas, Deadwood, Texas, and New Mexico.

I have a lot of freedom and independence as a novelist that I wouldn’t have if I was tied to a desk or working for a paycheck.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://mooncalfpress.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobertPeecherAuthor
• Other: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Peecher/e/B0092FZYT6