Certain Level of Insanity?

Today, after chatting at length with a self-published writer (and noted pessimist), I realized a certain amount insanity is required to be a writer. Just think about all the impossibilities that one must overcome to actually see his or her piece in print.

Like I said in a previous post, I have spent time mining blogs for advice and tips on the market, the writing process, what is selling, how to make the process easier, etc. And I have already added to what I thought was going to be a long and tedious process.

I realized while I am working on a novel-length submission, I might also want to be working on articles, short stories and contest pieces because many agents like to see accolades and accomplishments on your resume before they take you on for a book deal. (When will I have time for that?)

Not to mention once you have checked off the accolades and accomplishments off the checklist on your way to becoming a published author, then you must work on this "All-Deciding" query letter that just might make or break your career, which may be attached to a synopsis that could be equally damning.

I was told by another writer to have 4 versions of summaries in my arsenal when I approach an agent. The one sentence summary, the 1-2 paragraph summary, the elevator pitch, and the 2-12 page summary (with some rule about 1 page for every 25 pages of writing). All of this has my head completely spinning. And all of this to just land an agent.

Then if I think the agent is going to take over the load of the work, I would be sorely mistaken. There are rewrites and rewrites and rewrites to look forward too. And if you are fortunate enough to survive this, then contracts come and market plans are tossed around for review. And in one to three years, your book will hit the bookshelf at the local Barnes and Nobel or Borders. But in the mean time, you have set yourself for all this abuse again with another manuscript.

That is a lot of energy to be pouring into a project that may never see the light of day. Consider that less than 1% of manuscripts received ever get published. (That is almost enough to make you throw away your new collection of pencils and pens.)