The Glamorous Writer’s Life
After a lecture on how much advertising is necessary to get a book noticed, [the publisher] delivered the bad news. There was not going to be a publicity campaign for my book. It was a first book. I was unknown. They had invested very little in the book. Then he said, “What month is this? September? Nine months into the year, and you’re the first first-time author I’ve had lunch with.” I guessed that lunch was my publicity budget.
You all know the rest. Then there's this:
Ellen Byerrum writes: “You have to be cautious when you have a day job. Employers believe you won’t give them your last drop of blood and while some coworkers think it’s cool, others can make your life miserable, particularly if they harbor thwarted writing ambitions. One person I worked with told me not to talk about writing because not everyone had such a glamorous life, which is funny because I gave all my nights and weekends to writing while they had fun. However, I have to say there have been moments of glamour.”
