Rebecca Brandewyne - New York Times Bestselling Author. The Pros and Cons.

You might think there are many pros and no cons to being a published author. However, as you will discover, there are actually quite a few of the latter. Because every individual is different, though, while some of the cons might bother you, others might not.

But both the pros and cons listed herein are the rewards and concerns that seem to be most often voiced by published authors whenever they get together --- and some of those rewards and concerns you might want to think about, too, if you are considering a writing career.

THE PROS

You are your own boss.

You work your own hours, at your own pace.

You are able to use all your intellect, talent, and creativity.

You have a job you love.

You get to meet wonderful people --- publishers, editors, agents, booksellers, wholesalers, reviewers, and readers alike --- who adore your work.

You bring countless hours of entertainment, enjoyment, escape, and/or enlightenment to people the world over through your work.

If you write bestsellers and/or are extremely prolific, you can earn a considerable amount of money.

THE CONS

Unless you are part of a writing team, you work alone, day in and day out.

So if you are a sociable person who craves the company of others, then writing is probably not the career for you.

You have no one to help you. Everything that goes into your manuscript comes out of your own head and no one else's. If you don't or can't work on any particular day because you have something else to do or are feeling lazy, stressed, or sick, there will be no one else to cover for you and to do the work for you. The work will simply go undone.

There is no use telling yourself you will write twice as many pages tomorrow to make up for what you missed today. Most authors have a set number of words or pages they are realistically capable of writing each day, and seldom can they push themselves beyond it. Translation: If you've never written fifty pages in a single day before, then don't assume you will suddenly be able to do it tomorrow. You won't be.

You must therefore have tremendous self-discipline. So if you lack this, then, again, writing is probably not the career for you.

If you have a family and/or friends, you are often routinely interrupted, especially if you work at home, simply because it is frequently difficult for people who are not authors to grasp the fact that writing actually is work, that you actually do have a real job --- and contractual deadlines to meet.

If you cannot persuade your family and/or friends to refrain from constantly interrupting you, then seriously consider getting an office outside your home.

Your spouse may or may not be supportive of your writing career.

Highly supportive spouses often manage many of the business aspects of writing careers for their author-husbands or author-wives --- everything from writing letters, maintaining filing systems, and entering royalty-statement information on spreadsheets to reading and critiquing work in progress, designing self-promotional materials, and building websites.

Unsupportive spouses, however, will frequently question when the author-husband or author-wife is going "to get a real job and/or earn some real money to contribute to the family kitty;" will ignore or, worse, belittle announcements about the signing of new contracts, the making of bestsellers lists, the winning of awards, and other writing successes and triumphs; and may even actively attempt to sabotage the writing career of the author-husband or author-wife.

Only you can decide what you can and cannot live with.

You work in an industry that is extremely difficult to break into, and that is highly competitive once you do break into it.

All publishers have a monthly list of titles they are going to publish. How many titles will be on that list will vary according to any number of different factors, including the publisher's size, budget, staff, and acquisition, scheduling, and production rates. However, the one thing all publishers' monthly lists have in common is that they are limited.

There are only so many books any publisher, regardless of its resources and practices, can publish in any one particular month. Therefore, naturally, not everyone who writes a book is eventually going to wind up actually selling it to a publisher. For every book published by a publisher, there are thousands of manuscripts rejected.

On every publisher's monthly list, there are also only so many top slots, called lead titles. Generally, these are the books publishers feel have the best chance of not only selling to the public, but also selling in large quantities --- i.e., becoming bestsellers. These are the books publishers are really going to get behind, with big advertising-and-promotion campaigns and sales incentives.

Most publishers have only one number-one lead title and two or three other lead titles per month. So if a publisher has a thousand authors, then only a handful of them are going to be lead titles for any given month, and even fewer are going to be number-one lead titles.

Even under ideal circumstances, you are subject to the inevitable red tape and frustration of dealing with a large corporation --- namely, your publisher --- who can be either your best friend or your worst enemy, depending upon the relationship the two of you manage to achieve and maintain...or not.

Although your books are your babies, you lose most of your control over them once you sell them to a publisher. While most publishers will grant you some input into titles, cover art, cover copy, and editing and revisions, you must be prepared for the fact that you may not have the final say over any of this. The title you loved could be scrapped; your blond heroine could wind up a brunette on the cover; your cover copy might not reflect the real thrust of your book; and you could be very unhappy with the editing and revisions done to your book.

Try to work with your publisher on all these things. Most publishers want to avoid poor titles, cover-art and cover-copy mistakes, and destroying all your hard work just as much as you do. So when asked by your publisher for your input, by all means, give it --- considerately and constructively!

Try, also, however, to learn why various changes are made to your book by publishers. If, for instance, you've titled your romance Love Grows Like a Weed or your mystery The Butler Did It, then be aware that no publisher would be likely to retain your original title. Weeds aren't romantic, and if the butler did do it, then where's the mystery? These are, of course, obvious examples. But your publisher's editorial, marketing, and sales departments will know reasons why books don't sell, of which you may be completely ignorant.

Again, even under ideal circumstances, you are subject to the inevitable red tape and frustration of dealing with an agency and/or agent, who can also be either your best friend or your worst enemy, depending upon the relationship the two of you manage to achieve and maintain...or not.

Most authors have agents, who may be either part of a larger agency or else acting on their own. Agents work for authors, negotiating publishing contracts and foreign- and other sub-rights, and handling various other business aspects of authors' careers --- for which agents are usually paid 15% of authors' gross earnings.

Since 15% of an author's annual income is a considerable chunk of change, all authors generally want to ensure they are getting the best representation possible for their money. It is important for authors to know they can rely on their agents taking care of business, successfully negotiating publishing contracts and foreign- and other sub-rights, keeping a finger on the pulse of the marketplace, exploring options and creating opportunities to benefit authors, returning telephone calls and sending royalty checks promptly, and so forth.

Most agents are knowledgeable, reputable, and hard-working. But still, occasionally, for whatever reason(s), an author and an agent just don't mesh. There may be a fundamental personality conflict or a vastly different perspective on how business ought to be handled. As an author, you will want to look for an agent with whom you feel comfortable honestly discussing all aspects of your writing career, and who shares your own ideas about business. If, for instance, you're reluctant to tell your agent you'd like to switch genres, or you need your latest royalty check express-mailed to you because of a temporary financial crunch, then that's probably not the right agent for you.

You are subject to both professional and amateur critics who can --- and often do --- tear your work to shreds in print, for the whole world to see, as well as readers who post unflattering (and frequently grossly unintelligent and/or uninformed) messages and/or reviews about you and/or your work on online bulletin boards and at online bookstores and other book websites; and you also occasionally receive the most vicious, even threatening and frightening, hate letters imaginable from (usually anonymous) readers who didn't like one of your books (one of Rebecca's colleagues was once told the next fan letter he received would contain a letter bomb!).

So if you are a very volatile or sensitive type who cannot bear criticism of any kind and would take a nasty review, a spiteful post, or a malicious fan letter to heart, then, again, writing is probably not the career for you.

Unless something defamatory has been written about you, it is best simply to ignore negative reviews, posts, and fan letters, remembering you can't please all the people all the time, that one critic's or reader's "keeper" is another critic's or reader's "wallbanger." In the end, what really matters is, did you touch people with your work, make them laugh or cry, escape or think, or otherwise move them in some fashion? If the answer is "Yes," then you did your job --- and well --- regardless of what anybody might say to the contrary!

In the case of damaging, defamatory statements, you should consult an attorney and consider filing a lawsuit.

Threatening or otherwise frightening hate letters should be reported to the police immediately. Unfortunately, some fans are also stalkers.

You are invariably subject to people who think they, too, could write a book, if they only had time to "knock" one out.

Most people wouldn't dream of casually telling a surgeon they were going to drop by a hospital someday and operate on a patient, or a lawyer they were going to drop by a courtroom someday and try a criminal case. But everyone seems to think they could be an author --- usually because they don't really understand what all is involved in a writing career. Rather, they appear to believe authors spend a couple of weeks a year "banging," "churning," "cranking," "grinding," "knocking," or otherwise "whipping" out a novel --- and the rest of the time sunbathing on the Riviera. We wish!

If you are successful at your writing career, you are inevitably subject to the email, posts, etc., of people who claim to have gone to school with you or otherwise somehow to know you.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, these will be people you've never even heard of, much less actually know.

Unless you do write bestsellers and/or are extremely prolific, you will most likely not earn a considerable amount of money. More than anything, it takes time and persistence to build a successful writing career.

Royalty statements are usually issued by publishers only twice a year, which is also how often published authors are paid any royalties owing to them by their publishers. Further, because until receipt of their royalty statements, published authors never know how many books they have actually sold (or not sold), they also never know how much they are going to be paid --- or not be paid. (See Advances & Royalties --- How Authors Are Paid, for more on this subject.)

So if you're the kind of person who would, in a matter of a few weeks, blow a paycheck that needed to last you for six months, then, again, writing is probably not the career for you.

All authors are self-employed, as opposed to being actual full-time, or even part-time, employees of publishers. They are therefore subject to the exact same difficulties every self-employed person must face. They have no guarantee of either a steady income or work, no company-provided life insurance and health benefits, no company stock options, bonuses, profit-sharing plans, or pension plans, and no paid vacations, sick days, or maternity leave.

So, just like all other self-employed people, authors must assume all responsibility for providing all these things for themselves, as well as paying self-employment taxes (because self-employed persons do not have employers contributing to social security, they must pay a higher amount into social security than non-self-employed people do).

Because of the nature of their work and incomes, authors often have difficulty obtaining mortgages, car loans, and other financial funding. Be aware that when making application for any of these things, you may, as a published author, be asked to provide not only copies of your federal income-tax returns, but also copies of your contracts with your publisher(s), as well as any other materials (such as advertising-and-promotion information, sales brochures, book covers, etc.) that will assist in proving you really are, in fact, a working, published author.

You have a very stressful job, because:

You have so little control over what happens to your book, once you sell it to a publisher.

There are no immediate rewards from writing. Writing is a long-haul business. From the time you first get your idea for a story until you actually see your published novel on a rack or shelf in a bookstore somewhere, an average of approximately two to five years will pass --- and your first royalty statement usually won't arrive for six to twelve months after that!

IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS

In the final analysis, what keeps most published authors writing is that, for whatever reason(s), they really want to write --- no matter what!




Rebecca's titles are available in several other languages besides English, including Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish (languages for titles will vary). Book-club and large-print editions are also available.
	BUY ANY of REBECCA'S TITLES NOW FROM AMAZON BOOKS or BARNES & NOBLE BOOKS.

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