Both this blog and the Macmillan New Writers blog have been quite quiet over the last week or so, as we all get involved in family/festive things (where the mere mention of “checking one’s blog” receives immediate chastisement). So I’ll be brief as I stand in the middle of this silent meeting place with naught but the metaphorical tumbleweed gathering at my feet (and yes, I think somewhere in the distance I hear a dog bark…)
Just before we went away, David posted a rather good link to Michael Stephen Fuch’s website where he delivered a rather heart-felt and unapologetic piece on being published. A few of us have posted a few comments on the entry over on the MNW blog - a bit of wake-up call for any who wish to be published and be damned.
As Michael has said, and I completely agree with him, being published is not the route to happiness, unless someone has promised you a million pounds for publication, a fancy house (mortgage free of course), a nice car and lovely partner to share it all with. In fact, being published can cause additional problems such as the pressure of writing the second book, less time to spend with loved ones, the skewing of priorities and the danger that reality will not meet expectation.
For a career which has us immersed in worlds of fiction and sometimes fantasy, the first time novelist really does need to hold on to the buoyancy-aid of reality. There are plenty of ghosts down there at the bottom of the Sea of Publishing who simply let go and sank – sometimes without a trace.