There Is No Finish LIne

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.