Saturday, February 3, 2018

The other costs of writing no one talks about

I'm not done with my latest book, however the end is finally in sight. Another edit that I'm working on now, send it to my editor and then I'll finish those edits. It will be another two weeks or so then it will be ready. All books are different, as much as I would like to say there's a pattern and route I take with each one, there just isn't. Considering I wasn't working with this one I had hoped it would be easier, yeah no that didn't happen. There was still much anxiety, sleepless nights and missed deadlines. 

Recently, I saw an author post on the bullshit readers are pulling when they bitch about the cost of a book or even worse when they pull the punkass move of buying and then returning because they want to read but don't want to pay for it. Readers don't get there is so much more than the cost of editing, $300-600 for most authors, covers $100-$300 that price, they claim, is too high and there are authors who don't spend that much. Okay, yeah not everyone does. There are other costs though, His Under Contract cost me a family dinner out at a nice restaurant, a free dinner and a few hours with my brothers and my parents. Hmm, okay, you say, but that's your choice. Yes, it is just like this time around my latest cost me going to a second cousin's birthday party she's only one she won't miss me but I felt awful when other cousins did. Then it cost me dinner out with my family, again. This morning it cost me going on only  three and half hours of sleep. Those costs, they add up. My choice yeah, your choice to pay for it or move on. 

Over the course of four years in my attempts to make writing career, it has cost me three friendships. All I had was my weekends to write and I was saving money to spend on editing and covers and people get tired of being turned down.  I understand and don't harbor any ill feeling but it doesn't mean that I don't miss them. In the case of another yeah that relationship was going no where fast but it was sped up by a lack of support when I needed it to keep going because this isn't easy and if I can't depend on 'friends' for a kind word then they aren't a friend. 

Yes, in the last few years I've managed to become friendly, not friends, friendly with authors and bloggers and that's great having the ability to meet people you wouldn't normally. As great as they are, it doesn't make up for the friends I have lost. What's the price tag be for one friend? One dinner with my family. A birthday party. A brunch out with my friends. Is it a quarter for each lost hour of sleep? 

Look, I'm not beating some poor me drum. I chose to do this. No one is holding a gun to my head and making me sit at a desk instead of being with family and friends. However, readers need to be aware there is a cost to what writers do that can't be qualified by a price tag. Don't we deserve something for the swoon we give you when the characters finally kiss? Is it a quarter for every laugh you can't hold in? Is it dollar for every tear you shed when we move you to feel and you mutter how much you hate us and the character even as you can't take your eyes off the page? How about that moment when the rest of the world falls away and it's just you and the characters, what do we deserve for that?

No comments:

Post a Comment