Just call me one of those wanna-be pop stars who think it's not enough to sing, but they must share with the world how pathetic their acting skills are and just in case we forget their anorexic you know what...they need to inspire a designer perfume or their own line of jewelry. I get it. Building an empire is a good long term strategy. God help me if this comes out a little narcissistic, but I don't just want a novel on a shelf. I want my books to take up an entire shelf. I want full displays in the front of the store. I want movies posters with hot actors and a prominent line that reads, "based off the novels of..." I know it's a lot to ask, but I sort of want to be iconic.
:)
You never knew that about me did you?
It's not that I want to be super famous. No, I just want a nice safe cult following. I want to be respected by my peers and invisible to the world at large. I want to walk into a store, flip on the TV or walk into a movie theater and know that I helped make that possible.
I think this is why I'm spending so much time on this first novel. In the publishing world, you kind of only get one chance to enter the arena. I know a lot of authors who published just to publish. Some of them did self publishing (which is another rant I won't get into) and others downplayed their work, choosing to use a lesser known publisher or even write in a genre they don't like in order to just break in. But this isn't necessarily like the movies. In acting, you have to be in something to get into the guild and you have to be in the guild to get any roles. But in Publishing...if you're work is good enough, it will sell, whether you have a masters of English and were deemed a writing prodigy by a national competition, or if you wrote in your basement on weekends for ten years. If it's good, they will take you. But if you bomb on your first book--well nowadays, you might as well be blacklisted. There's no time for taking chances, no risk. The publisher wants to see dollars. They want the numbers to get higher with each book. If your first numbers are low and your second are lower, you're out of luck.
I just want to look at this manuscript and know that it is as good as I can make it at this moment. I want to know that the world on the page clearly mirrors the one in my head. I want to be able to sit back at the end of the day confident that somewhere out there, someone is reading my words, falling into my world and falling in love with my characters. When I get to that point. Then I'll be ready.
