Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Friendly enemies

Agents are not your friends; editors are not your friends. They're in the game for money, and you're in the game for...well, for a measure of fame and recognition and, if you're lucky, some money as well. Your phone calls will get answered as long as you are generating cash. When the cashflow stops, calling your agent or editor is like howling into the wind. Your voice will go unheard, and your calls and emails will go unanswered. The game is not about love. If you are looking for love and compassion, become a florist or a psychiatrist. You write because you can't help yourself. Face it: you are an obsessive-compulsive neurotic who has to put words on paper or on a monitor because that's what you're driven to do. Writing is a creative neurosis. Maybe it's a form of therapy. If you run into a wall and can't get Random House to publish your next book, then publish it yourself. But publish it correctly. Hire a line editor and hire a publicist and get the word out. Borrow the money if you have to. The stigma is disappearing, thanks to Random House's purchase of xlibris and Barnes and Noble's equity stake in iUniverse. After more than 20 books, I had to publish my last one myself. But I did it like a business. To my own surprise, I ended up selling foreign language rights and will be distributed in-store by Barnes and Noble. So do it for fun, do it because you have to, stop bitching about agents and editors, and take responsibility for your own work.

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