�©
2007 by Janice Phelps Williams All rights reserved.
Return to www.JanicePhelps.com
for book design, illustration and editing.
Since 1997, I have been involved with folks
whose purpose in contacting me is to turn their manuscripts into books. They
want to be not only writers, but Authors. Published authors and, dare they
dream, self-supporting published authors.
Most of them want book tours, autographing parties, their book on a shelf at
Barnes & Noble (preferrably an endcap with no competitors), their book in
the "Literary Guild" catalog (or maybe Quality Paperback Book
Club's...). They want to get e-mails from people whose lives were changed by
reading what they wrote. I confess to a bit of that desire myself...
The desire to be published is a societal step-up from the desire to be heard.
Writers just want to be heard by as many people as possible and for as many
generations as possible. In some folks it is attached to the desire for wealth
and fame, but not for as many as one might think.
It is great to read a manuscript that needs little editing ... that takes on a
life of its own and demands to be a book, earning that right simply by the
arrangement of letters on a page. An arrangement that creates an alternate
world with characters, scenery, and action. Magic!
Other manuscripts, like a sturdy house, need construction work. Sometimes
things get messier before they get better. In all cases trust and patience are
key. Hope helps too...
I once read an article by Erma Bombeck years ago on the natural optimism of
dogs. Writers have that as well, I've found. They are optimistic about the
chances of their work being published, being sold, being considered worthwhile.
It is difficult when the truth is otherwise and one could never delight in
being right in such a situation.
Technology has changed the way books are produced, the economics and business
set-up of publishing and a host of other things. Technology can never change
the magic of words well written.