I'm such a sap and gullible to the gills. My tent making business has been very slow this last two years because most tents are being made overseas in Asia. Actually, my business is really residential home remodeling and if the current corporate business world could find a way to provide residential remodeling from Asia they would build it there and ship it here for Wall Mart to distribute. So why I'm I such a sap?
Since my business was slow I figured I would write a children's book. I love to write prose and it seemed like a very attainable goal. So off I went with pen, paper in hand and within a year "Clyde The Donkey" was ready for the book publishers around the world to bid on or so I thought. First off I think everyone on the planet knows someone who has written a children's book. Now then if this fierce competition wasn't enough to scare me off...the reality to hire a book agent definitely did.
My next idea was to take a day to visit my local bookstore and search children's books for actual publishers. As I was turning the pages and writing down the information my list was starting to grow. Next came a quick cup of coffee at Starbucks followed up with free Wi-Fi and a couple of hours of non stop emailing book publishers. This was a complete waste of time.
Oh, how I dread to admit when I am wrong and so does my wife otherwise she would have to admit she made a mistake in marrying me. The story line of my book really wasn't half bad but it was still going to take a miracle to get someone to take an honest look at it. Soon the almost inevitable advice started pouring in from all the other armchair quarterback writers who had faced off on the gridiron of literature before me. Yes, my writing peers who also had never published a book but acted like they knew something I didn't, simply what was the best way to get published. I don't get it, why do people think they are helping and encouraging you by hacking away at you (watch out for your fingers.)
Well at least I haven't got writers block yet. Oh yea, the advice I received from my peers was that I need to join a literary guild and hone my skills. Now OK that sounds like good advice on the surface but lets think this through together. Your trying to publish a book. There's too many other writers out there so you join a writers guild with a whole bunch of other writers who are also trying to publish a book. Once you are all in this new found fellowship you begin to read each others books that will probably never get published. So now you are helping add even more authors to an already incredibly large ocean of literary work.
Somebody stop me! By the way my book is published right here on my "New Wine" blog site under January 2012 titled "Clyde The Donkey". Please enjoy reading it for free just don't leave a comment. So now even if it was a great book, one that that Dr Seuss would be drooling over, now all my potential customers can just read it for free. Other advice I received was that Dr Seuss went to 49 different publishers before someone took an interest. By the way Dr. Seuss would have been 108 on March 2nd 2012 if he was still in the land of the living. Thomas Edison, I have been told, made 500 attempts at making a light bulb before getting one to light up...but I don't think I have that much time on my hands.
What is an unemployed blogger to do? I heard tell that even JK Rollings of the Harry Potter book fame went years trying to get someone to read her new book series. Oh, how I wish I could have been the knuckle headed publisher who finally said to her..."Well, Miss Rollings, I'm not going to promise you anything." Even Tim LaHaye has enjoyed an incredible ride in top selling book circles. What authors need is a name cause I'm betting its pretty easy to find a ghost writer or co-author out here in the unemployed, cyber blog realm.
If you know someone who might be interested in helping me publish another children's book could you please forward the story to them? Help a starving, recovering Calvary Chapel pastor to get his book published? Then I can start feeding my family once again.
Since my business was slow I figured I would write a children's book. I love to write prose and it seemed like a very attainable goal. So off I went with pen, paper in hand and within a year "Clyde The Donkey" was ready for the book publishers around the world to bid on or so I thought. First off I think everyone on the planet knows someone who has written a children's book. Now then if this fierce competition wasn't enough to scare me off...the reality to hire a book agent definitely did.
My next idea was to take a day to visit my local bookstore and search children's books for actual publishers. As I was turning the pages and writing down the information my list was starting to grow. Next came a quick cup of coffee at Starbucks followed up with free Wi-Fi and a couple of hours of non stop emailing book publishers. This was a complete waste of time.
Oh, how I dread to admit when I am wrong and so does my wife otherwise she would have to admit she made a mistake in marrying me. The story line of my book really wasn't half bad but it was still going to take a miracle to get someone to take an honest look at it. Soon the almost inevitable advice started pouring in from all the other armchair quarterback writers who had faced off on the gridiron of literature before me. Yes, my writing peers who also had never published a book but acted like they knew something I didn't, simply what was the best way to get published. I don't get it, why do people think they are helping and encouraging you by hacking away at you (watch out for your fingers.)
Well at least I haven't got writers block yet. Oh yea, the advice I received from my peers was that I need to join a literary guild and hone my skills. Now OK that sounds like good advice on the surface but lets think this through together. Your trying to publish a book. There's too many other writers out there so you join a writers guild with a whole bunch of other writers who are also trying to publish a book. Once you are all in this new found fellowship you begin to read each others books that will probably never get published. So now you are helping add even more authors to an already incredibly large ocean of literary work.
Somebody stop me! By the way my book is published right here on my "New Wine" blog site under January 2012 titled "Clyde The Donkey". Please enjoy reading it for free just don't leave a comment. So now even if it was a great book, one that that Dr Seuss would be drooling over, now all my potential customers can just read it for free. Other advice I received was that Dr Seuss went to 49 different publishers before someone took an interest. By the way Dr. Seuss would have been 108 on March 2nd 2012 if he was still in the land of the living. Thomas Edison, I have been told, made 500 attempts at making a light bulb before getting one to light up...but I don't think I have that much time on my hands.
What is an unemployed blogger to do? I heard tell that even JK Rollings of the Harry Potter book fame went years trying to get someone to read her new book series. Oh, how I wish I could have been the knuckle headed publisher who finally said to her..."Well, Miss Rollings, I'm not going to promise you anything." Even Tim LaHaye has enjoyed an incredible ride in top selling book circles. What authors need is a name cause I'm betting its pretty easy to find a ghost writer or co-author out here in the unemployed, cyber blog realm.
If you know someone who might be interested in helping me publish another children's book could you please forward the story to them? Help a starving, recovering Calvary Chapel pastor to get his book published? Then I can start feeding my family once again.
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