It's Not Always Going To Be Rainbows and Unicorns

Although it would be great, the publishing world (and pretty much every other profession out there) will not be full of nothing but good news and great things. We aren't living in a world of rainbows, unicorns, candy
corn and sparkly things. Funshine Care Bear is not our next door neighbor.

Earlier this week, I posted here some numbers that showed the money authors make, and yes, it is a bit disturbing and disappointing. One of my authors sent me a note about another project and followed it up with a small P.S. "I have to say your Monday blog post was bleak, not like you at all. You almost made me drop my computer and take up some sane craft project where I'd have a chance of selling a knitted toque or two."

I bring this up as a simple reminder. Yes, we will get bad reviews for our stories. Yes, we will get rejection letters. Yes, we will have days when we want to kill our characters because they are being a pain in the butt and not playing fair. But, that is not a reason to give up.

We have to remember what we do this for. We write because it is an expression of who we are. We do it because we enjoy putting words on the page. We have to remember that.

Look, the honest truth is that writing is for everyone but publishing and being that #1 writer in the world is not going to be for everyone. Yes, we can strive for it and yes, we should strive for it. But we cannot forget reality and we cannot forget what we write for.