Worst thing about being a writer?

Possibly the second-most-asked question writer get asked after “Where do you get your ideas?” or “Have you made any money yet *snigger*?” is “What’s the hardest thing about being a writer?”

OK, so maybe there are loads more questions that get asked before that one, but it makes a good post intro, so I’m not changing it.

For me, it’s not the initial writing, although the Poison Parrot does it sneaky damndest to stop that phase of writing a book from progressing, or even starting, very often.

It’s not even editing. I enjoy editing. Seeing my book come together both structurally and stylistically, making it “sing”.

And it’s not putting it “out there” and asking beta readers to read it.

It’s not even getting pages of recommendations (take up landscape painting instead…) back from said beta readers.

It’s not even the patronising and pitying looks I get from so many people when I tell them I’m writing a book. Or even another book. I try to let those looks motivate me, remind myself I have something they don’t have and will never have – my stories and my character and all their loves and hates and joys and heart-breaks.

No. The worst thing about being a writer for me is …

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Waiting (see what I did there?).

I think one of the kindest things agents and publishers and editors and bloggers can do is to add an auto-reply to their submissions inbox. At least let us know our submission has landed, arrived in their inbox and not got lost somewhere in the aether along the way.

Every time I send something to one of the aforementioned kinds of people, I spend the next days/weeks/months worrying I’m waiting to hear back about something I may or may not later find out never even bloody made it to them.

I’m not a patient man, at the best of times, so please, book publishing industry, for the sake of all of us little people trying to get our big break – let us know you got our email?

That, alone, would reduce my/our stress levels hugely.

xxx