I Write for Anyone Who'll Publish Me
by Andrea M. Newton
February 18, 2008
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When I tell people that I'm a writer, the response is always the same.
"Really? Who do you write for?"
Several of my friends have asked it. A couple of days ago it was the clerk at
Sharon Luggage who was patiently letting me look at every non-Mont Blanc
fountain pen in their display case. (Not Mont Blancs because I've heard bad
things about them.)
Today it was the very nice lady who helped my husband and me do our taxes.
No matter how many times people ask me that, I'm always surprised. It's as if
people think that writers get hired by a company to crank out books and short
stories. While that was true for me when I did technical writing, sadly the same
doesn't apply for fiction.
Could be worse, I guess. They could say, "Oh, and where do you wait tables?"
Or the always dreaded, "I wrote a book, too. It's in a suitcase at my house.
Would you mind reading it and letting me know what you think?"
Or even, "I have a great idea for a story..." (So do I. A backlog of nearly two
dozen at the moment. And more ideas popping up every day. I'll never get through
all of them, much less anyone else's ideas. But it's sweet of you to offer...)
At least my family has stopped saying, "Oh, you got a job?!" when they ask what
I've been up to and I say that I've been busy working. My husband, of course,
has never done that. When he asks how my day went and I say,"Eh, you know. Just
work," he follows up with, "Cool! How many pages did you get done on the story
today?"
When people ask who I write for, I've started giving the standard -- and
completely honest -- answer that "I write for anyone who'll publish me." Because
at this point I'm writing short stories and submitting them to magazines in the
hope that they'll like them enough to put them in print.
I suppose I could say that I write for myself and hope others like it. That's
just as true.
Maybe one day, if I work hard enough, get lucky, and have a couple books on the
best seller list, I can say that I write for my fans.
Ah, now that's a dream to wish for...
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