Changing Times

This posting is dedicated to my husband, Bob.

For the past four years I have had the sweet luxury of almost unlimited writing time. Four years ago I left my office job when we had to leave Charlotte for Bob’s new job. We lived briefly in Columbia, South Carolina, before returning to Charlotte for his next assignment. But I didn’t return to work. Our children were all through college and Bob was earning a comfortable income. He wanted me to have the time and energy to devote to writing.

I appreciated every moment of this precious gift. There were days when I put the writing aside temporarily due to other commitments. There was the time I took four weeks off and painted almost every room in our house and the time I supervised the updating of our kitchen, family room, and one of our bathrooms. I occasionally babysat my grandson full time during the summers and part time during the school year, but I managed to keep up the writing schedule for the most part. During my four years of freedom I managed to finish two novels and revise another. One book was published, one self-published, and the third is currently under revision. I’ve also started a fourth novel.

Sadly, my writing freedom has come to an end. Bob’s computer programming contract ended today, and with the current economy the outlook for a new job any time soon is not promising. We’ve known this was coming for some time and have prepared. Two months ago I started looking for a job of my own, but didn’t get a single phone call, let alone an interview. Then I found a job on Craigslist and the whole thing was handled by email-very 21st Century. I am now an "inventory processor" for an Internet company.

The manager is very informal. He emailed me to come in for an interview and said to dress casually. I did so and a couple of days later he emailed me to start work Friday. I had to email back and find out what time to be there. The pay is low, but I’m proud to help in some small way and happy that I’m working with a great bunch of people.

I'm glad I have a job, but sad I can no longer write full time. After I got home exhausted on Friday, I ate dinner and then sat down to work on my new book. I got a whopping 250 words done before I ran out of steam. But books are written a word at a time, and a writer who really wants to write will find a way. I now get up earlier and write before work and even if I only get 200 words down each day, eventually I will have written a book.

Just Lucky, I Guess...

My sister sent me a link to an NPR news story about Brunonia Barry, a self-published author who managed to land a two million dollar book deal for her first novel The Lace Reader, with talk of a major motion picture. And yes, I am insanely jealous.

How did she do it? Her husband is quoted as saying they were "emboldened by their ignorance." They knew enough to get started but not enough to stop them from doing it. Ms. Barry worked with book clubs and independent book stores. She went so far as to share her early drafts with readers and developed a devoted following along with a lot of that wondrous thing called Word of Mouth. And she was successful beyond her wildest dreams.

Ms. Barry had a lot going for her–a good story, a supportive husband, access to an avid fan base, and a generous amount of plain dumb luck. Of course, none of it would have happened if she'd started out with just a mediocre story.

I’ve long believed that self-publishing or small press publishing via Print On Demand (POD) technology is not indicative of a bad book. Many talented authors choose to self-publish because they want to put their work out on their own terms, rather than bow to the "This is what’s selling so could you put in some more sex and gore?" mentality of the big publishing houses. Unfortunately, since the process is open to anyone who has written a book, a lot of really, really bad books get into print. Every bookseller has a story about the loud-mouthed, self-absorbed jerk who really believes his book about his life selling used cars or working at the phone company is going to fly off the shelves.

Readers are not concerned whether the books they’re reading were published by a well-known New York publisher or an independent POD publisher operating on a shoe string out of her home office. As long as the book is well written and looks presentable (no misspellings or inconsistencies), they don’t care what publisher’s name is on the flyleaf.

Ms. Barry’s story is a rare occurrence. The fact that she was featured on a national radio program is proof enough that her experience is atypical and therefore newsworthy. But it does provide a ray of hope for authors who aren’t published by any company you’ve heard of. As long as we’ve got a good story to tell, we’ve got a chance of hitting the big time.