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I heard that at the Writers of the Flathead Conference in Kalispell, Montana a couple of years ago. I remember David Morrell saying the same thing at Thrillerfest. It’s a mantra. It used to worry me when I heard it, but then I realized my day job is writing, so, well. Duh.
After three decades of writing, I’ve learned one or two things. I’ve also done things wrong, maybe one or two. There was recently an article that caused a ripple in the writing community titled: How to Lose a Third of a Million Dollars Without Really Trying.
It’s by an author who talks about all the wrong decisions she made after getting her traditional book deal.
First, the title is disingenuous and misleading. She didn’t “lose” the money. She spent it. She acts like she put it in a pile and burned it. She lived off of it. The issue was how she lived off it. She quit her day job. Moved to New York City, etc. etc.
Second, she complains that her agent and editor and NOBODY told her anything about how the system works. Of course, googling this was out of the question. Or joining a writers group? I always recommend the local RWA chapter because there is considerable experience there. Hell, I wrote an entire book that preceded her career about being an author because, guess what, no one told me anything when I was first published. So I wrote an SOP for writers to explain what I wish I’d known.
She also refers several times to her awards. We used to joke in Maui that they give awards to…
