FOR WRITERS
Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Lex Chase:
“Things no one told me when I became an author.”
Um, let’s see. Writing is a lonely job. It’s hard to change prices on Amazon. You only get so many rounds with your cover designer before they blacklist you…
I could go on?
Share your own “shouldas”.
That most – OK, I will avoid broad generalization and say ‘many’ – people (non-writers) truly believe that unless you are on some popular bestseller list (NY Times, USA Today, etc.) you are not successful and your work really isn’t ‘work’ but just a hobby. For them, your writing will always be a form of intellectual masturbation until you are ‘known’. Early on in my much-delayed writing career, I felt good about what I was doing and bubbling over with the desire to share by experience with friends. Big mistake. Inevitably, they ask how many books you have sold – because, of course, worth is judged by sales – and when you proceed to inform them that your work is only available in e-book format their eyes cloud with disinterest and their smiles become perfunctory. No sales, no ‘real’ book’ in a ‘real’ book store = loser/no talent/ conceited something or other. NOT a REAL writer.
I should never have given up on Damian and Christopher after writing that awful draft of ‘Stealing Myself From Shadows’ in 2003. It worked out, because they didn’t give up on me. They kept haunting my imagination, until I started writing for them again. Now, I have several stories and a new draft of ‘Stealing Myself From Shadows’ I worked on during NaNoWriMo 2015! :)