so you wanna be a writer?

“So you wanna be a writer?”
“Well, yes”
“You do know that writing is a business.”
“I understand that if I write what is wanted, I’ll get paid for it, which makes it a business”
“No. I said. Do you know the business of writing?”
“You mean, do I know the genre I’m writing in, my target market; the magazines that will take my work; the agents that I can pitch too?
“No, I mean the failure rate, the departments set up just to reject the overflow of words piled up in the corners of every publisher’s office.
“They actually have rejection departments?”
“No, I made that part up. They actually have a big sign in their lobby which says, we only published celebrities or people who know celebrities. It’s written in Braille, so only blind people ask for it and get to read it.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, not about the Braille thing, but certainly about the inscription which is branded into the hearts of the editors and agents of the publishing conglomerates.”
“You really don’t like the publishing industry.”
“That’s not correct. I love the publishing industry. I just wonder sometimes if it loves me.”
“I guess you’ve had a lot of rejections?”
“Rejections are the confetti of the publishing industry, my friend. You collect them like badges of honor. Do you know that Bukowski got rejected for twenty years. But he still continued to write every day, and send in his short stories every week? Finally, when he didn’t want to be discovered he became famous.”
“So, what are you saying, I should give up wanting to be famous? And then what?”
“Yeah, give up wanting to be famous, my friend, and just write, dammit!”