| Author |
Message |
    
Steven Shrewsbury
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
454
Registered: 04-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 06:04 am: |   |
This seems as good of a spot for this thread as any.
I was thinking about some things and pondered what it is writers really want above all.
Now, aside from all of the heady answers about expounding voices in the head (reasons for writing) etc, I wager most writers really want to be PUBLISHED in a book. Most writers want to walk in B&N or BORDERS and see their book on the shelf or hear someone say, "Hey! Saw your book at the store" or "Saw your book in the paper!" or even, "Bought your book and it sucks!"
That said, I think that some frustration sets in when the major goal is not achieved. Sure, one can write a book. Sure, one can get a POD of it pubbed. But we all want the home run. Some think they have the homerun on paper or try to hit it over and over. Other times, one fouls off the pitch so many times...or settles for singles.
Now, I wrote quite a few very bad books when I was younger. At the time, I thought they were the greatest thing since sliced bread...and they were really burnt bagels. That is part of the learning process, to build on things, learn from mistakes, etc, etc...
What am I saying? Frankly, it bites when you think you have written a great novel, and 3 editors who would know tell you so (best stuff I've ever done)...and an agent or publisher of merit will not even look at it because "it is not right for them".
Sigh. Perhaps i am talking to hear myself talk, but ya'all are good folks.
Glad today is a drinker's holiday... |
Perry Comer
Unity Member
Post Number:
1095
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 07:11 am: | |
Shrews you got it just about right.
It took 20 years for THE PRIZE to go from the first written word to publication. My wife, the language arts teacher, refused to read it because it was a "sea novel". We made a deal that if and when the story was published in book form that she would read it. She finished it and said it was one of the best books she has ever read. Believe me, she is my toughest critic.
I can't remember the number of rejection letters (form letters no comments) that arrived through the years. Agents and publishers alike sent the letters without reading the story because it did not fit their needs. No one needed a "sea novel" except a New York house specializing in non-fiction who took a chance on a guy named Patrick. MASTER AND COMMANDER has made millions at the movies. Could have been THE PRIZE!!
Yep, the goal is the book on the shelf at the local bookstore.
Happy New year all!! I will be sending THE PRIZE around to agents and publishers this year - perhaps someone will want a "sea novel".
http://www.pacwriter.netfirms.com/ |
Fred Dungan
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
469
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 10:28 pm: | |
Come on, Steven. The real reason we write is to impress the groupies.
http://www.fdungan.com
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Laurel Johnson
Unity Member
Post Number:
2508
Registered: 01-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 04:28 am: | |
Since I don't have any groupies to impress.....hmmmmmm.......why is it again that I write and just what the heck do I want???????
I forget. |
Todd Hunter
Unity Member
Post Number:
1032
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 06:38 am: | |
Fame, Fortune...all that stuff...
I'd settle for a hefty advance, to help pay some bills...
:-P |
Steven Shrewsbury
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
455
Registered: 04-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 07:24 am: | |
Fred, I should send you some of the stuff a few groupies have sent me... |
Jennifer Lynn
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
947
Registered: 03-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 10:02 am: | |
Groupies? I don't have groupies but I do get the odd racey email, and even had one marriage proposal so far.....
Jenn |
Steven Shrewsbury
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
456
Registered: 04-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 10:34 am: | |
Eh, it is sorta complicated, but I really get told some weird things.
Keeping focused on the prize, or goal is important. |
Laurel Johnson
Unity Member
Post Number:
2509
Registered: 01-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 11:17 am: | |
Yeah Jenn. I hd a couple racey emails too but that is not what I wanted from my writing career.  |
Harry Simenon
Awareness Member
Post Number:
39
Registered: 10-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 03:35 pm: | |
I play in a band, but still no groupies!
I wrote a book, still no groupies!
I think I wrote a book to leave something behind I could be proud of.
A trace of my existence, my own little pyramid?
But groupies would be nice though.
 |
Steven Shrewsbury
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
457
Registered: 04-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 04:21 pm: | |
All depends on what they write to you. It can be flattering, yet, when one writes and says they must change under garments after reading certain tales by you (no sex, just blood & violence) it gets disturbing. |
S.F. Falkner (Unregistered Guest)
Work-in-progress guest
Posted From: 204.246.5.17
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 10:41 pm: | |
Before my daughter was born, I'd have to say that I was writing for immortality. That need to be remembered is a pretty big motivator. Now, though, I'd have to say that the primary reason I do it is for the reaction I get from my readers. I love hearing, "I couldn't sleep after I read the part about the girl in the car...", or "I was on the edge of my seat at the end, I was so scared for such and such a character...". It's all about the reactions these days. Part of that might be arrogance, let's face it, it's all about the ego when you get into a reader's head and rearrange the way they're thinking. So, yes, I'd say I write to delight, amuse and terrify my readers... that, and the whole God Complex thing.
S.F. Falkner
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Matt Dinniman
Wandering Member
Post Number:
116
Registered: 04-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 11:50 pm: | |
I played in a band for many years, and that's how I met my wife. She WAS a groupie. lol. I figured if I can get 1 woman interested with music, I can get gobs and gobs with writing. No luck so far.
The only reason I want to make money with my writing is so nothing else gets in the way of my writing. |
Claudia Turner VanLydegraf
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
772
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 02, 2004 - 09:17 am: | |
The reason that I wrote Notes was so that the 40,000,000 or so other people who have lived in the adoption triad would know that they weren't alone in their thoughts and needs and the reasons that they got there in the first place were all pretty much the same. I also wrote it for my children, so that they could possibly understand that the beginnings of their lives was a time that was a struggle for me, however I really did love them and tried my best to do what was at that point in our country's past, considered best.
That was why I wanted so much for it to be published, and gotten into bookstores in the first place, and why I was so desperately disappointed when it didn't get the advertising and promotion that I knew was needed to make the general (even adoption triad) public know of its being. I wasn't hoping for groupies, fame, wealth or any of the other trappings, though all of the above would have been validation that what I had written was relavant to some people.
I did succeed in reaching some people, but not nearly enough, to my way of figuring. I did get my book to one of my children, well actually, two, but one won't even acknowledge that I wrote it (and thinks that I wrote way too much about her and her father in there, even though it was MY life I was trying to put up there on the disection table, not her's or her father's), and the one that I really tried to explain the whole thing to, doesn't give a damn and won't read it anyway, because he is so strung out on drugs that his mind won't reach that far. So far, all of the comments and emails and such that I have gotten have been positive and say that the book was needed and should be read by anyone in the adoption triad situation. Not groupies or anything close, but good comments and validation from a set of people that need to know they are not alone and many of us have had the same feelings and needs ignored or downplayed and bypassed as irrelevant throughout our lives. ....And to me that is the MOST important and BEST thing that I have received from the writing of my book.
Claudia
http://notesfromnobody.homestead.com/book.html |
Fred Dungan
Hsympothai Member
Post Number:
470
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 02, 2004 - 11:30 pm: | |
I was adopted. When the other kids made fun of me, I always said, "My parents wanted me, yours got stuck with you."
http://www.fdungan.com/publish.htm |
Dennis Collins
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
442
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 10:03 am: | |
I have a total of ONE groupie...
There is a woman in Chicago who makes it a point to find me at every conference in the midwest. She's a real big mystery fan. (Has even traveled to England just to attend mystery novel festivals.)
She hangs out around me throughout the entire weekend, attending all the same lectures that I do and usually sitting next to me. She's always at my table for lunch and dinner too.
For some reason she became totally fascinated with The Unreal McCoy and has become my number one cheerleader.
She's never tried to get real close or invite herself to my room, so I guess it's fine for her to be a super fan.
She's an extremely attractive, in shape (marathon winner) and apparently well off lady. She lives in a high rise on the shore of Lake Michigan with a beach for a front yard.
Y'know, maybe I should take a closer look... Nah, not my type. I'm more of a trailer trash kinda guy. |
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