Worry About the Writing, Not About Being a Writer

I love this!

I feel moved to amend Allison’s letter. Everything in it, all the advice she offers to her young students relates to the quickly fading world of legacy publishing. Nothing in it speaks to the massive changes underway in the business. I would like to think, though, that her charges will follow her advice about paying attention to the writing, not to their role as writers. But in a climate that more and more requires writers to market themselves, to “game the system” through social media at the expense of time devoted to craft, this will be hard for them to do.

I like Barry’s comment and applaud it. It appears to me that MFA grads often do get an automatic pass into publishing which makes them woefully unprepared for the real business of writing. But I’d like to point out that the majority of highly talented and devoted “writers” out there are NOT MFA grads. They are hard working writers who produce consistently good work without the elite MFA pass into the industry, without agents to advise them or publishers to support them artistically, and without a group of handy professors praising their work. These writers juggle jobs and family, struggle to get exposure for their work, maintain creativity and hone their skills regularly, and still they must dazzle editors by their sheer talents, not their education, degrees, or connections in the industry.

I agree with Esther … “be real.” A writer friend of mine once said … “writer is not a job description. Writing is not what you do. Being a writer every day is who you are. Live that, without all the accolades, and watch what happens.”

I’m not in the least worried about the book, I’m working on because, I know it is going to be a desired book however; as a first time writer, I have concerns but no worries since, I have full confidence in my work. I’m not going to wait around years to get my first book published so I’ve decided to go with Amazon because, I believe if a book does well there, agents and publishers will get interested. Let’s face it, they want to make money and if they see a book is selling like hotcakes, they want in on that action and future potential of the artist and his/her works. I believe one must be confident and a perfectionist to write a book as well as gifted rather than a good speller or perfect grammar since an editor tends to that if you have a good manuscript that is completed to perfection.
My concern is copyright before publishing with Amazon since, I can publish it instantly and drive agents nuts who wish to make money off my works. Any suggestions about copyrights per Amazon publishing for a first book tease before, I make many wealthy with future books?