I decided to take the class. The teacher, J.A. Konrath (a/k/a "Joe"), amazed me with the story of how he got his 3 book deal. It didn't happen overnight. It took years of trying, stacks of rejection letters, and probably a great deal of soul searching about whether or not it he had what it takes. But he never gave up and it paid off. He vowed that if he ever achieved any kind of success as a writer that he would do what he could to share his knowledge with other aspiring writers. I admired his drive and determination to follow his dream. I left the class with a new perspective on what this business is about but I still wasn't convinced I had what it takes to do it myself.
Almost two years passed, I scribbled thoughts in notebooks infrequently during that time. But no serious writing took place. I happened upon the latest COD course catalog and saw that J.A. Konrath was teaching another course "How to Market and Sell Your Writing" in the upcoming term. I registered for it thinking "I liked that other class. So I'll like this one, too."
On the first night, we went around the room to introduce ourselves and when I said, "Hi, I'm Martel Sardina. I took the "How to Land an Agent" class and enjoyed it. So now I'm back for this one." I was expecting his response to be something along the lines of "Welcome back" or "That's great."
Instead I got "Well, what have you done in the last two years?" and I had nothing to report because I wasn't a writer. In my mind, I was a writer because I thought writing a poem or scribbling thoughts in a notebook put me in the same league with the authors on the NY Times Best Seller List. I thought the difference between us was luck. They had good luck and I didn't. I treated my dream of being a writer as something akin to winning the lottery. I never really thought about how the Best Sellers got there, I know I underestimated what it took to get there.
I told Joe that I had written a bit, poems mostly, and what he said to me next changed my life. "If you want to write poems and write in journals for the rest of your life, that's fine. That's not what it takes to be a professional writer. Professional writers treat writing like a business. Not a dream. Not like winning the lottery."
To be continued...
Almost two years passed, I scribbled thoughts in notebooks infrequently during that time. But no serious writing took place. I happened upon the latest COD course catalog and saw that J.A. Konrath was teaching another course "How to Market and Sell Your Writing" in the upcoming term. I registered for it thinking "I liked that other class. So I'll like this one, too."
On the first night, we went around the room to introduce ourselves and when I said, "Hi, I'm Martel Sardina. I took the "How to Land an Agent" class and enjoyed it. So now I'm back for this one." I was expecting his response to be something along the lines of "Welcome back" or "That's great."
Instead I got "Well, what have you done in the last two years?" and I had nothing to report because I wasn't a writer. In my mind, I was a writer because I thought writing a poem or scribbling thoughts in a notebook put me in the same league with the authors on the NY Times Best Seller List. I thought the difference between us was luck. They had good luck and I didn't. I treated my dream of being a writer as something akin to winning the lottery. I never really thought about how the Best Sellers got there, I know I underestimated what it took to get there.
I told Joe that I had written a bit, poems mostly, and what he said to me next changed my life. "If you want to write poems and write in journals for the rest of your life, that's fine. That's not what it takes to be a professional writer. Professional writers treat writing like a business. Not a dream. Not like winning the lottery."
To be continued...
posted by Martel @ 11:07 AM
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