By Karin Gillespie
The year? 2004.
Mean Girls was playing in theaters. Martha
Stewart was sent to the pokey, and Janice Jackson had a wardrobe malfunction.
And on a personal level, Simon and Schuster
published my first novel in 2004. Back then, there were no Kindles, Nooks or
Kobos. Facebook was for Harvard students only. No one tweeted, instagrammed or
pinned cute cat photos on Pinterest. The Internet was a wasteland of porn and
pop-up ads.
Ten years ago, you actually had to leave your
house to promote a book. My publisher sent me on a multi-city tour and, after
it was over, I schlepped myself to every bookstore and library in the
Southeast.
Now, in 2014, I’m more inclined to promote
from my armchair. I’ll still occasionally make in-person author appearances but
my days of driving 400 miles to speak to ten people in some forgotten corner of
LA (Lower Alabama) are over.
2004 was a very different time for writers,
and I can’t imagine what it might be like ten years from now. But although many
things have changed, some things about the writing life will always remain the
same.
The Muse Must Be First, Everything Else Last
Authors have a need to please their publishers
but sometimes pleasing your publisher isn’t always in your best interest.
Authors can get a little starry-eyed about their publishing company especially
during the honeymoon phase of the relationship when the editor is throwing
around the “L” word.
And yes, your editor does LOVE, LOVE, LOVE you
and your work until… your book sales slump, you gripe about your ugly cover or
you decide to write something that is not your brand.
What writers need to remember is that almost
everything about the publishing process is like a PESTICIDE for the Muse. If,
for example, you’re writing a series that’s wildly successful your publisher
will want you to continue to write sequels, not just until you’re dead, but
from beyond the grave like V. C. Andrews
Admittedly, some writers are perfectly content
writing about the same characters for years and years, but others aren’t.
(Which is painfully obvious when you suffer through their books) You can hardly
blame them, especially when the filthy lucre is accumulating their bank
accounts so quickly they have to occasionally shovel it out.
But, honestly, why be a writer if suddenly it
becomes as oppressive as the day job?
And what about readers? Authors love readers
but our relationships with them can also grow sour if they aren’t interested in
our growth as writers. Often they want use to produce the same-old, same-old
but stagnation is the death of creativity.
Moral of the story:
Don’t let anyone hobble your Muse. Not even people you desperately want to
please.
Not Everyone is Going to Like You.
In the months leading up to publication, I
learned that my novel was going to be S&S’s lead title for the month of
August. My head swelled so much I could barely pull a turtleneck over it.
The day my book was available from Amazon I
eagerly waited to hear from my public.
One five star review! (Thanks, mom.)
Three more reviews followed in quick
succession.
All one star.
Later I discovered those review were all
submitted by the same person, a former member of my writers’ group. At the
time, I was highly miffed but now I’m grateful.
Why?
Because I was forced to face bad reviews early
in my career. I gnashed my teeth, took to bed with whisky and candy corn,
called my editor and sobbed, but eventually I got them out of my system. Now I
barely flinch when a total stranger says, “I wish I could have given this book
minus ten stars.”
Moral of the story: Everyone gets bad reviews.
Hemmingway, Jane Austen, Scott Fitzgerald. It’s all part of being an author.
(Although admittedly it lessens the sting when you’re dead.)
Dry patches are part of the package
As writers, we get frustrated when nothing
seems to be happening and we are running 90 miles an hour. Fallow periods can
last weeks, months or years and they can feel longer than a coon’s age. But
then, whammo, a millions things happen at once almost making us
nostalgic for the days when the only emails we got were from Living Social.
I had a fallow period for six years! (Still
makes me shake my head in disbelief.) But I needed those six years to regroup.
I got my MFA, wrote a couple of dud novels and plunged into a self-study of
storytelling. That time seemed wasted but it wasn’t. During the next 12 months,
I’ll have six novels coming out. Six! (Four are re-issues, but still…) That’s
one for every year I was stuck in mud. And
I’m just finishing up a seventh.
Moral of the story: Fields that lay fallow
will eventually produce bumper crops. Bring on the zucchini!
_____________________________________________________________________
Karin Gillespie is the national-bestselling
author of five novels. She has also written for the New York Times, Washington
Post and Writer Magazine. She has an MFA from
Converse College and lives in Augusta, Georgia. Karin is a Midwestern girl who, after
forty years in Georgia, is still trying to get the hang of being Southern. Her Bottom Dollar books are being re-issued by Henery Press starting in October
2014. I wrote the Bottom
Dollar Girl series as a love letter to small Southern towns. Over a period of
several years I visited dozens of tiny towns throughout the Southeast and I
took copious notes of everything I saw to create my perfect little Southern
borough, Cayboo Creek, South Carolina. Her website is at http://karingillespie.net/
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