In an age when everyone seems to be pinching pennies and a dollar doesn't buy what it used to anymore, reading about Audrey Niffenegger's nearly $5M, yes that's right, I said million, deal for her 2nd novel gives me hope.
As a writer, honestly, it isn't about the money. I do it because I love it. Because it gives me an escape into a world that (for now) is all my own. No one else lives there and I can get absorbed into the lives of my characters as they show me their stories. My only job is to capture everything I can as I see their lives unfold before me.
As a "pre-published" writer (you know, like pre-med student?), it gives me hope that there's a chance, however slim, that one can still make a living as a writer. Recently I've read a few agent blogs providing some general advice for the "pre-published" population and there were some really valid points they made. The one that has stuck with me the most is basically summed up as "Don't quit your day job." When I first read this it made me a little sad, because really, I'd love to just be able to write all the time, but for now, that's a bit unrealistic. And then when I read that same piece of advice on another agent's blog, well, I started thinking about it and it really does make a lot of sense. Nothing's guaranteed, right?
No one can truly know what's going to happen beyond right now (except maybe psychics, but they creep me out a little), so I guess following the old adage would be ideal: hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Do everything you can to help yourself succeed, but at some point, you have to let go and let the chips land where they may. Hopefully they land in the good places, the ones you wanted them to land in and maybe a few places you never even realized were there.
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