I once heard a seasoned and successful author say, “There is no
finish line for authors.” At first, I thought
that was crazy talk. What do you mean no finish line? I thought that was the
most discourage thing I’d ever heard said, then I thought about it.
You write your first novel. Wow, you actually completely an
entire book! Can you sit and bathe in
the success of your endeavor. Nope, now you have to find someone to represent your
work and as brilliant as you are, you are up against thousands of submissions
at any given time….not to mention market trends, agent preferences and so on.
There goes that finish line, but you are the exception and
you land an amazing agent. You can almost see yourself going through that
yellow tape at the end of the race until you realize, he or she still has to
sell your book with a publisher. Now just for the sake of optimism, let’s say
that you land a great book deal with a good publisher. Finish line here you
come.
The chariots of fire music starts to play. You are running, barreling
toward the end when your publisher starts talking about what kind of marketing
you will do and how it will take all your time.
Holy Crap, is there no end to it all?
Isn’t the money supposed to just roll in?
Your book hits the market and it actually sells. Wahoo! You’re doing the happy dance and that is when
you get the first email asking when the next
book will be coming out.
Suddenly you realized, the track that you’re on is
circular. They’ve lied to you. The
finish line is really the same thing as the start over line. At that point you’re wondering if they make a
medication to deal with your condition, but amazingly you don’t pout too long. Instead, you throw your shoulders back, go to
the finish line which is in fact just another start, and of your own volition
begin the course once more. Are you
crazy? Maybe a little, but most of all,
YOU ARE A WRITER and you will go round and round in a circle of insanity if it
means that even one person will cherish your words as much as you do. To all
you writer’s out there, there may not be a finish line, but you are my
champions.
