Someone I recently met asked me about what it’s like in the book publishing world.
He was curious to know whether we all led lives like JK Rowling – or close to it – rolling in cash like Walter White in Breaking Bad. I had no choice but to burst his bubble.
Most authors are nowhere near Rowling’s success. There was even a study saying that authors can only do this book writing thing if a) they have a partner who can financially support them or b) they have a day job.
He was surprised and saddened to know that most authors don’t make much money off their work.
‘So why do you do it?’ He asked.
It’s a different reason for each author. But my answer is because I love it. I love writing stories. It feeds something in me that nothing else does. If you tell me that I should stop writing or that I’m forbidden to write, I don’t know what I’d do.
It is a lot of work. It requires a lot of mental energy. And sometimes when the final work is released, people love bagging the shit out of it. It’s not all fun and games.
But I love it.
Also it’s a way of leaving a legacy after I’m gone. It’s a way of being immortal without turning to vampirism (although personally I don’t have a problem with turning into a vampire). I hope to still be doing this for a very long time.
:::::
I made the mistake one time of reading reviews for my first book and one of them just highlighted everything that was wrong with it. I went through several phases of emotions: angry, sad, homicidal, contemplative, homicidal again.
Then I read up on what other authors said about bad reviews (or reviews in general).
It’s not about you anymore. It’s about the reader. There will always be someone out there who will hate your work. It’s the same with songs, movies, TV shows etc etc.
I mean not everyone likes Game of Thrones or the Marvel Endgames so, you know, perspective is good. And even Stephen King gets haters! Or JK Rowling! When I just zoom out and look at it from that point of view, it’s not so bad.
The best piece of advice is to just keep doing what you love doing. And don’t stalk the book reviewer. Or show up on their doorstep. Or have a fight on social media.
Just keep writing.
::::
I sometimes get asked if I’ll ever run out of ideas for books. I’d like to think that I won’t run out. Given the number of files I have for book ideas I can safely say I’ll always have them.
But the better question is will I run out of ideas that I want to turn into a book? One that I can actually flesh out into 70K words or more?
*shrug*
Depends on my mood. LOL. We’ll see. I do have moments when I open a file and think to myself ‘what the hell?’ Not all of the ideas I wrote down were good. Or worth expanding into a whole universe.
Also, with age and new life experiences we always get new ideas – ideas that are worth pursuing more than others.
So yeah, ask me again in 10 years. We’ll see.
Leave a Reply