Someone Else's Dream
October 10, 2001
7:31 a.m.
Both John Savage and Steve Leigh have recently commented on various elements of "How to Be a Writer." Steve's entry in particular caught my eye because in it he described a workshop where a self-published writer was discussing the process she used, and where he saw how many people wanted to follow that approach. This struck me truer than true because I was recently at a gathering of a local writer's group when someone brought out an advertisement for one of these on-line places that will "print" your book for X-hundred dollars, and I witnessed the exact same phenomena. An entire room of people suddenly drawn to a single focus--I mean, it was as if a nude celebrity had just strolled into the middle of the conference room. I think so many things about this. First, the "professional" (ha!) in me finds it sad. Here is a group of people who will do anything to get published, and this feels like the devil waving a contract below their nose and handing them a feathery quill that still reeks of brimstone. But then there's something else, too. These folks want to make a go of the business. Some of them do, anyway. It's just that they don't understand it, and they're afraid of it. Face it, this publishing thing is not so well defined a workplace as a building where you go in and have bosses and co-workers and all the politics and interpersonal dynamics that those entail. Until a person gets immersed into the publishing world (at least to some degree), trying to understand it is like trying to understand telepathy. So they hear about this option that bypasses all that yucky stuff. No need to get an agent. No need to worry about a publisher or the editor/writer relationship. No reason to sweat it. It's only X hundred dollars. And so they see these things as shining lights singing the hallelujah chorus to them. Yes, to us, we see the Sirens hidden under their illusions. But what can you say? I think it's all okay, though, in the big picture. People who want a "professional" career bad enough figure it out in the end one way or the other. There is a third category, though. It's those people who get at least a piece of what they want through this process. They get a book. And they can go to their friends and a few local shops and let people see that they've written a book. Perhaps it's a story about local history, even. Or perhaps it's a book written by someone who really has no aspirations to become a professional writer. Perhaps, to them, this gig is just a hobby. And there are a lot of people who spend a lot more than X hundred dollars on a hobby. What am I saying? Am I supporting self-publishing? Well. No. Not really. I guess what I'm saying is that it's not surprising at all that so many people gravitate to these "easy" options. After all, to have been published is the big psychic draw for most people. It's only idiots like me to whom the work is the real reward. And it's idiots like me who forget that the word "publish" does not mandate a New York publisher with contracts and rights and royalties and returns and all that. An idiot like me can get so caught up in my own goals and my own mindset that I forget to sometimes look at someone cradling a book they've "published" in their hands, and see the pleasure and the self-satisfaction that resides in their eyes. All I'm saying is: Be careful what you're trying to squash. It might be someone else's dream.   Have a great day.  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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