The Glamorous Life of an Author

January 19, 2014

By Colleen Houck

Many people have the mistaken assumption that a writer’s life, while not quite up to Hollywood standards, is quite glamorous and full of business meetings in opulent high rises, private jets for worldwide tours, cashing huge checks, and sitting on a giant pile of fan mail as the letters you threw up in the air fall gently around you.

While perhaps all of us indulge in the American dream of fame and fortune, there are easier ways to achieve it than by publishing a book. Being an author is perhaps one of the most, if not the most, non-glamorous ways to earn a living.

All of my conferences happen on the phone while I’m sitting at home wearing sweats and no makeup. I write swoon worthy love scenes while my hair is in a sloppy pony tail and I’m wearing yesterday’s comfy socks. Touring is something most authors don’t get to do and even if they did they’d be most likely sitting next to you in coach class.

Checks are never as big as you think they should be. Six months of bills need to be paid. Your agent needs his share. Uncle Sam takes a huge wedge of the pie. Fan mail piles up and there is never enough time to write back to everyone though you really want to and you answer the same questions over and over and over patiently, though you know the answers are all found on your website.

Instead of spending your time on writing a book, you spend more than half your day trying to increase your twitter followers, coming up with something amazing to blog about, though you haven’t left your desk chair in two weeks, and planning for the upcoming conference, class, workshop, online chat, contest, blog interview, presentation, tour, and explaining to your editor why your next book isn’t ready.

There’s also all the time you spend on the phone with your agent, editor, producer, marketing director, publicist, website developer, a slew of assistants, and this is only in one country and don’t forget your relatives, both close and extended, who all want constant reports on what is going on because surely something special has happened in the last twelve hours.

It’s a stressful, taxing, nerve-racking, blank page staring, eye straining, carpel tunnel inducing, caffeine chugging, can’t-think-of-the-word spinning around in your head job.

On the other hand…

There is something very special about finishing a book. It’s a jubilant feeling like nothing else I’ve ever done. Characters you’ve lived with for months complete their journey and it’s suddenly time to say goodbye.

It’s seeing fans shake with excitement when they approach you. It’s the delight of sharing something so personal with the world. It’s rubbing your hand over the cover of your first published book and saying to yourself, “I did that.”

It’s meeting someone who says, “Your book has changed my life,” someone who cries when you hug them, someone who makes their own fan T-shirt and stands outside in the cold, or the rain, or the heat for hours just to meet you.

It’s seeing your parents cry when they find your poster up in their local bookstore and getting pictures of smiling nephews holding up a newly purchased book on release day then seeing the second picture of them holding a new toy with real smiles.

Writing is an endless fight with your husband over punctuation and the topic of almost every marital conversation.

Being an author may not be the most glamorous profession but it’s a deeply fulfilling one. It’s a celebrating, self-expressing, no alarm buzzing, car in the garaging, interesting topic learning, and, if you’re lucky, movie making kind of job that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

This entry was posted in Articles, Bonus Material, Writing Advice.

Colleen Houck

Colleen's blog

The Glamorous Life of an Author

January 19, 2014

karen millen outlet uk

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Categories

Archive

Author Bio

Colleen Houck