I found out yesterday that Power and Majesty could be in the shops as early as 25 May, which threw me into a bit of a tizzy. June still sounded safely and longingly far off, but May arrives on Saturday, and really, I’m already getting an armchair in May, do I deserve a book too?

(the armchair will be my combined mothers day & birthday present and I am ridiculously excited by it, who needs surprises? I want a CHAIR)

There are many tough parts to being a writer. The long period of not getting published is pretty much agony, but believe me, it’s not as bad as a long period not getting published after actually getting published, because if there’s one thing getting published gives you, it’s the expectation that it will happen again.

Having your expectations punctured is compulsory, for a writer. Getting accepted for publication is not the Happy Ever After you may think it is – it’s page one.

Then there’s the actual work, which is you know, work, and requires work, and even if it’s your dream job, there are always drudge days. Sometimes drudge months and drudge years. The stress of finding problems in the text that can’t possibly be solved – the incredible high of solving an impossible problem. Typing until your fingers are numb. Juggling everything else in your life to free up one day to write, and then spending the entire day writing words so awful you have to delete them the next day, and replace your computer, because this one has suck all over it. The collapse after a week of writing so hard your brain feels like porridge, and having to be restored to life with copious amounts of chocolate.

(turning something you love into work has many positives to it, but you’re also turning something you love into WORK, and there’s a price to be paid there, and not many creative people talk about that, I think because they’re afraid the people with 9 to 5 jobs will drop pianos on their heads)

Let’s not talk about the pay. Though I do think it is important for writers to talk loud and long about how much they actually get paid for writing books, because it’s fun to see the dismayed look on the faces of people who have real jobs. The little worry lines as they clamp their lips down so as not to say things like ‘is that really all?’ and ‘but how do you eat?’

There’s the lack of sick days, maternity leave, (STRESS LEAVE), and, if you’re not careful, weekends.

It’s a long, slow job, even once you’re on what people might think of as the authorial fast lane – books sold, heading to publication, nothing but a bit of tidying to do, right? But even the biggest publishers move at a pace that’s hard to get used to at first, contracts signed a year or more before publication, long months of just you alone with your computer being trusted to get on with things, and then suddenly when edits or proofs arrive, it’s your responsibility to drop everything else and work break-neck-fast. If you’re not a naturally organised AND flexible person, dealing with the process of taking a book from acceptance to publication can hit you like a freight train full of typos.

Then there’s the final month. You are going to get your reward, the shiny published book, but even that is one of those dream things that is a lot less romantic when you get there. Because here’s the secret they might not tell you about being a published author: people are going to READ your book. The book that maybe only a handful of your closest friends, family, writing partners and editors might have read up until now. Some of those people love books, and have very high standards. If you’re lucky, they will love your book.

But many of them won’t. Even if you’re successful with the good reviews and the books selling hand over fist, and the awards nominations, there are going to be people who will read your book and hate it, and want to tell the world how much they hate it. And that’s the best case scenario. People could hate your book even if you don’t get good reviews and high sales numbers and awards nominations. Everyone could hate it. Even that is better than the other horrible possibility, which is that people might not read it at all, or might read it without remembering it.

You might think you’re pretty good at dealing with negative feedback, but then there you are, a month from publication, and people are already reading your book, which you totally weren’t ready for, and they are having opinions about it, and most of those opinions so far are happymaking and joyous, but there are going to be a few are just plain wrong, suck it up, all readings are valid you know, even if they think your book is about FAIRIES which it patently isn’t, and what if your entire cast is made up of violet-eyed, red-haired Mary Sues in black leather and no one told you until now because they didn’t want to hurt your feelings???

Also, your parents are going to be reading your sex scenes. And other people’s parents. And everyone you know.

Ahem. There’s a reason that I cheerfully tell people that all writers are crazy. I think we have to be.

Hope you all have an awesome May. I’ll be curled up in my brand new armchair, eating lots of birthday cake and feeling paranoid. While, you know, thinking up an awesome end to my trilogy, and deciding who’s gonna live.

Why yes, I do have a day job where I get to wantonly kill people. Also, I get to choose the awesome outfits they wear.

Tags: allwritersarecrazy, creature court, power and majesty, publishing, thinkinglikeawriter, writing