In the five months since my last entry, things have moved on apace. I'll be publishing a set of linked vampire-themed stories in time for Christmas, hopefully by the end of October. The text of my first novel, which I hope to publish around Easter 2022, was very well received by an editor. She asked questions and made suggestions that have made me think, but in a positive way. In the meantime, I have some professionally-taken author photos in stock now, and a set of professional design options for the cover of the short stories to select and finalise.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about my Amazon keywords and search terms, and have determined that, for these stories, the most likely market is American e-book readers looking for Scottish horror or vampire stories, and I've built a lot around that. I'll report back on this in due course. I went into this knowing that substantial revenue isn't the most likely outcome, but I see no reason not to aim for some.
In the background, though, other things have been on my mind, and they are all linked, one way or another, to Samuel R. Delany, whose On Writing I have on order. The context is me thinking (or overthinking) about the point at which a retirement hobby becomes a much more serious endeavour for me. The consequent question is: at what point do I become comfortable with being described, or describing myself, as a writer?
There are a lot of aspects of the modern cult of the writer that make me uncomfortable, just as I'm uncomfortable with the - predominantly American - trend towards academisation of writing via the MFA (and the parallel rise of the MBA and similar masters degrees). I see this a lot on social media - something close to fetishisation of writing and the writer, and I certainly see it in the hotshots who publish several novels a year as eBooks then go back at a leisurely pace to sort out spelling and plot issues - but hey! they're 'published authors', right?
Charles Stross once ranted about misconceptions of the life of a writer - I've just reread it and his payoff about it being a job rather than a lifestyle is something that bears constant repetition. Even at my amateur level I've felt something at the fringes of the same: I've spent the bulk of this year revising rather than writing anything new, and there have been days when it has certainly been a job rather than a retirement activity.
In this context I came across something from Delany that said 'If you're going to do it, be serious about it, man.' He also reported poet Marie Ponsot saying of James Baldwin that 'If [he] thought he was anywhere near as good a writer as I think he is, he would be a much better writer.' In large part, both of these relate to craft and application, but they also relate to attitude.
I've said consistently over the past two and a half years that I have no problem with working, I just didn't want a job. That is still my core attitude, but I need to work out how to apply it to where I am now.
If I let my ego accept the praise I've been receiving (and it's nice to have the ego stroked from time to time), then I have to start taking it even more seriously than I already do. As Stross suggests, there are misconceptions abounding about a life spent in smoking jackets, casting enchanted words of wisdom onto the page while a servant mixes the perfect martini, but it is an honourable trade to which to aspire and work through an apprenticeship. Perhaps the milestone that marks the transition is the first sale of a book to someone whom I don't already know, even if (or perhaps especially if) they leave a 1-star review.
