I want to thank the digital age so much for making so many authors believe that being a professional writer is easy. I want to thank the self-publishing companies that tell us that within 48-72 hours, you can be selling your book. I want to thank those individuals out there, who, for 4 easy payments of your soul, can make you a New York Times Best Selling Author (they must be true because I read it on the Internet). All of these people have somehow gotten writers to start believing that this industry is easy. Being a writer isn't hard at all.
Give me a computer.
Give me a desk.
BAM!!!!!! Like Emeril, I have a fully prepared meal novel!
And yet, when you talk to successful authors, and I am talking about those authors who have been around for YEARS!!!!! they will tell you that it wasn't their first book that sold. They did not reach that status in the first year. It took time. It took pain, tears, heartbreak, setbacks and a lot of failures.
A common question I hear from authors, in courses or workshops I teach, or through messages here on the blog or through the agency is, "Is there a website or a book that will tell me how to..." In other words, people are looking for that perfect template to fix all of their problems.
It does not exist! You have to use that lumpy mass between your ears called a brain to figure it out on your own. You have to think and do it on your own.
Even at a recent conference, I actually heard an editor recommend using ChatGPT to write your query letter for you. I was sitting on the panel with her and I nearly fell of the stage. I could not believe what I heard her say! She was actually telling writers to "not write" and have a computer "write" for them. She was promoting to find the easy way to the solution. Sorry, but this is wrong. If you have to use A.I. to do your writing, you are not a writer.
You have heard me say this before here on the blog, but there are no shortcuts. There is not a work around so you don't have to struggle through with the writing. YOU have to be the one who sits your butt down at the computer, or pick up that pad of paper and do the writing. YOU have to be the one to do the research for your stories. YOU have to be the one do research which agent is going to be right for you. YOU have to take the time to learn how to write and what makes a good story work and what makes a bad story fail. YOU have to be the one to determine which publishing house your writing fits with.
And yes YOU will fail. It will not be easy. And if you still think it will be, I strongly recommend finding another career other than being a professional writer
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