A COSMIC LAUGH
I recently received a note from one of my Facebook pals who wrote he’d had a letter to the editor printed in a local newspaper. Could he say he was a published author now, he wondered. My response was to congratulate him and add an “amen” to his comment that he wasn’t ready to quit his day job, yet. I also made a distinction for him between being a writer and being an author. “Author” usually refers to those who write books. But either term is laudatory because it describes a person devoted to language and art.
I’ve been thinking a good deal about the difference between being a writer and an author, lately. A few weeks ago, I finished the third draft on my fourth novel which I’ve been working on for two years. Any form of writing is work but crafting a book can be a long, tedious process with few rewards.
With four books written, I’m weighing the advantages and disadvantages of returning to the short story format. Like the novel it, too, provides a sense of accomplishment, but it isn’t a process that involves promoting the piece once it’s finished. The short story writer simply e-mails his submission to a magazine and waits for a reply. If the answer is yes, he celebrates. If the story is rejected, he sends it on to another publisher until he finds a buyer. The magazine, through its subscriber base, provides the audience. The writer doesn’t have to search for one.
(cornell.edu)
The short story market has many plusses. One doesn’t need an agent or a publicist and there’s no need to promote the work as if it were a piece of real estate or a used car.
Sometimes it takes a lifetime to learn a lesson. That’s part of the cosmic humor in life. Like the revolutions of the planets, we sometimes end where we began.