Recently I attended two writing conferences. While they were extremely different in their styles and content, (and so awesome) there was one similar theme throughout both – the publishing world is cray-cray, and good luck to you, oh writer, trying to break into the business. Perhaps try joining the circus instead – you may have a better chance at becoming a sequin clad house cat tamer then getting a book deal. At least, the message was something to that effect.
So how are we, as writers, supposed to stay sane as we attempt to break into an industry that is completely overridden with cynicism? (cynical but realistic. sigh.)
We keep writing. We ignore the statistics. We do our absolute best. We do what we love. We keep reminding ourselves why we do so in the first place -because we love it. We don't focus on the publishing deal but putting beautiful work out into the universe, to bless people with.
If you are meant to be an author, and continue to ignore your inner (and sometimes outer) critics, continue to refine yourself, learn, attend harrowing conferences, ask for opinions, find your voice, and then write write write, then you will probably *one day* have your book on a shelf with a real live ISBN on the back cover.
But until then, lets just keep writing. Keep fueling the fire in our guts, keep sipping steamy coffee while blasting Pandora and clicking away at the keys. Keep creating, keep editing, and keep dreaming – because going in a forward direction, even if you don’t know where exactly it will take you, is a lot more fun then going nowhere.
