At some point we have all heard someone make that claim. Before we were writers ourselves we probably thought and sometimes even said “Yeah right! You’re sitting around watching Oprah and playing video games, unemployed again.” Admit it. When most people tell you they are writing a book, even if they are sitting at the keyboard and you can see the word processor open with content in it, you don’t believe.
Some years ago I had a friend who was a head hunter for full time IT workers. She would call people up whose resume she came across to pitch a low paying full time job and the voice on the other end of the line would respond “I’m a consultant.” About half the time she would respond “So, unemployed again, eh? This is a full time job.”
If you are old enough you run into quite a few people who will at some point say “I’ve got half a novel in a drawer at home.” When I heard that I always thought “In order to know you are half way done you must know exactly how long it is going to be, so just finish it.” I don’t think I ever said that out loud to anyone, but I could have. When I was younger it certainly wouldn’t have been out of character for me. Makes you wonder just what people store their “half a novel” on in this day and age. Do they print it all out and stick it in that same drawer? Do they store it on a 3.5″ floppy hoping the floppy never gets polarized and that they will some day, some how be able to find a machine that still has a functioning 3.5″ floppy? (Says the guy who has more than one machine with a fully functional LS-120 and lots of book snapshots on the media.)
We are conditioned to believe this is a made up occupation because so many deadbeats use it as a cover for “sitting around watching Oprah.”
What Happens to “Day Traders”
During the Clinton years a great many deadbeats switched to calling themselves “Day Traders.” They kept telling everyone that while all of their credit cards were getting denied because this new video game called “active investing” consumed all of their money until their new home didn’t have an address.
So. At what point do people stop thinking that of me?
When Stephen King tells someone “I’m writing a book . . .” nobody questions it. A good many people may even be looking forward to the publication date. Why don’t I get that same respect? Multiple times per day I get phone calls from “technical recruiters” who can barely put 4 understandable English language words together in an entire conversation and when I tell them I’m currently writing a book they chuckle or laugh. I tell them it is another book based on “The Minimum You Need to Know” trademarked series and direct them to the series Web site and still there is no respect. This from people who cannot even speak my language and are trying to get me to take a dramatically below market rate consulting gig.
Christ, there are seven titles in that series. That’s not counting my novels and the two titles I did through a traditional publisher.
At what point in an author’s career does does uttering the phrase “I’m writing a book” go from laughter and sneers to a reaction of respect and anticipation? Writing minds want to know.
