The original post was written four years ago. Everything here happened years ago. I think it’s high time to dust it off and remind authors of it again.
Know that you are a great writer and let no one tell you otherwise.
Originally Posted on February 20, 2018 by unholypursuit
Some may say this mentality is pompous, arrogant, and pretentious, but actually it is not. It is not arrogant to know your worth. Because it is going to take this attitude to make it as a writer.
First of all, no one is going to give you permission to succeed.
A few weeks ago at a book signing event I met an elderly man who swears he had seen this before (everyone thinking they can write because they can string two sentences together) and only the true authors are going to be left standing. He said he doesn’t read books unless a big publishing company is behind them.
[Remember these few weeks ago were four years ago]
Then I guess he has never read some of the most remarkable work known. Castle Rock was not a big publishing house when they took on Stephen King. But he’s the most highly paid author in the world today.
I ignored him for I didn’t drive through snow to get there to listen to him. Yes, there are trolls offline too.
He said years ago it was vanity publishing companies milling out books by the thousands and most aspiring authors fell to the wayside never to be heard from again. The writers gave up and went back to their day jobs. Was he giving me a hint? I don’t know but I’m sure he was but I have many years of writing under my belt. Many years he knows nothing about. But I was thankful for this newsbits.
These are the kind of things you will hear. Develop a tough skin and keep on doing what you do. Being a writer doesn’t mean being perfect. You are going to write great stories and some not so great ones, you’re going to make errs and mistakes, but keep on writing. You learn from them.
This is the greatest fear most who want to write let hold them back. Will anyone like it? Will anyone read it? Writing is like anything else you want to do…if you await others’ approval, you’ll never accomplish anything.
If anyone is like me, if you stopped doing whatever every time some one told you what you couldn’t do whatever, then you would never get anything in life done.
unholypursuit
The Novel: UnHoly Pursuit: Devil on my Trail 
Thank you for these words of encouragement today.
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You’re welcome. We all need them from time to time. 🙂
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Interesting and valid points! I see that this links with that post from last week about reading only big publishers and I still disagree with that man you met! 😉
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Yes, I knew about the vanity press. Several contacted me long before I met “The Muses Port” but the amount of money they wanted was ridiculous. This was long before the days of kindle.
I disagreed with the elder gentleman because he made it clear that his media outlet company was not hosting any books not published by a major publishing house.
I’ve read lots of big press published books, but I look for gems among Indies and small press too, mainly because they are more likely to freely write about important issues or make up and published a story I have never read before.
The situation was this: Several authors and I were at a social press meeting designed for Small Press and Indies. It’s sort of like a job fair. Some local media, radio stations, and newspapers were present. That’s why our publishers sent us. I think the indies showed up on their own.
Several of us got an outlet interested in our works, some radio stations and television shows took the incentive to introduce our books to their audience. And he was disagreeing with those outlets who said they would help us.
Oh, I certainly believed him; saying that lot of authors who are writing now who will later dropping their writing career to pursuit more lucrative prospects, have happened before. I believe it had happened before from the aggressiveness the vanity press approached me.
I said what I did because some of the most iconic writers of all time were originally self-published. And I didn’t like the put-down he was projecting to Indie and Small Press writers. Pretty much saying, “You can’t write unless you’ve been accepted by a big publisher.” Failing to realize in most cases, with most big press it’s no longer the author’s original work by the time it’s edited to fit the company’s guidelines. You’re mostly reading the editor’s story with the author’s name slapped on it.
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Those of us who are not in the trade sometimes forget that it is a business and not just a creative outlet!
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Authors often forget that too. 😊 Most just want to write and not deal with marketing. However, most of it is a creative outlet but as any other creativity, in order that other know it exist one must find ways to introduce themselves to the world. Thanks goodness we do not have to do as the earlier authors, go read or recite publicly like in a town’s square.
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Agreed although I kind of like the idea of open readings! 😉
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I have done it in libraries and it can be a little intimidating. 😀
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Pingback: ReBlogging ‘Know That You Are A Great Writer.’ – Link Below | Relationship Insights by Yernasia Quorelios
Thanks for the reblog. 🙂
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This sounds so typical for our times, without success and monetary benefits everything we do is regarded as worthless. Modern life’s measured by profit margins only! We would be entire without the creative output of art if those merchants of greed would be in charge of our affairs. Against these proponents of materialism stands the clear and resistant sphere of meaning, beauty, love and consciousness without we would be not human.
However, criticism and the separation of the chaff from the kernel are essential. Otherwise, there will be no one tending to the crop and we will all starve.
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Oscar Wilde once said that “A fool is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”.
That’s why writers and artist pay these merchants of greed no attention. Most writers try to create work that will inspire and last. Creativity has no limit. I once read a book written in a spiral circle. Every page was written in a spiral.
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I agree, the critic serve a purpose. Where would writers be without them. They make the work better. They see situations or hole in a story the author have missed.
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Thanks for the motivation!
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You are welcome. 🙂
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I wonder what that “f2f troll” has to say about the state of publishing NOW! I picture him shopping now: only in used bookstores, so as to avoid accidentally reading any authors who e-published… 😉
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Hi Kana, thanks for visiting. I eventually got him on board in reading Indie’s work. Oh, I didn’t let him off the hook so easily. Oh no, that would have been too nice after his insulting me— to let him walk away not scalded. 🙂
I invited him to a reading gathering of Indie and Small Press authors to show him what these people can do and by the time he left I had convinced him that our work is as good as traditional press, if not better, because we know we have to be good, very good to gain readers. You’re most likely only going to get one chance to impress a reader. It’s has to be our work which captures the reader’s attention, because even Small Press doesn’t have zillions to sink into one book.
I learnt he was one of those people who condemned Indie’s works without having ever read any of them. He was one of those people listening to the moneyed people in the publishing industry. The stigma attached to Indie and Small Press is dead and only very discriminating readers are still holding on to it.
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Oh, even better! I’d imagined this as a one-off, an interaction with someone you’d never see again—but the real story-arc is you SHAPING a reader! 😉
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I think he intended it to be an one-off, an interaction with someone you’d never see again—but I felt if he got to know read authors outside of what the online talking heads said just maybe he would change his opinion.
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