I read a post on social media this weekend, which talked in vulnerable and honest terms, about the length of time it takes to get anything written.
The person was older, with some health issues and still working full-time in an unrelated, non-writing job.
They said (and I paraphrase): “I may be done with writing novels. I’m not getting any younger, they take me forever to write and the agent query/submission process is exhausting. I could self publish but I’ve resisted that with novels. I’ve probably got around 20 years of life left but the entire writing, editing and publishing process takes around five years. My time and ability to work on this is diminishing.”
What are your thoughts on this?
Specifically, about being older and knowing how long the process takes, unless you have a publishing machine behind you and established name recognition?
I’ll be honest, reading it made me sad because I so desperately don’t want that person to stop writing but at the same time life is finite, so we have to choose what we do with our time wisely.
For me, working towards achieving any dream is always a worthwhile endeavour. And today, self-publishing, while more intense for the writer in terms of marketing, is no longer an inferior delivery service.
In fact, I hope to be speaking to an author next year, for a Ten for The TEN, who is making six figures from her novels, none of which are sitting on the shelves of any major book stores. She has a huge following, has a fantastic income stream and is living her best life.
Maybe this post resonated because I often think about the energy I’m expending as I write.
And as we crawl towards the end of the year, it’s only natural to exclaim, “How on earth has another year gone by already?”, so it’s worth further contemplation.
As you get older, while everything in your body appears to slow down, time speeds up.
I quipped to a friend earlier today, ‘Adulting is essentially scheduling’, and so a book project, no matter how committed you are, if it’s not your day job, stretches across the horizon and virtually disappears into the mist. More so if you’re working full time and have health issues.
And yet, and yet…it’s still all to play for, right? Frank McCourt’s debut novel, the memoir Angela's Ashes, was published when he was 66-years-old. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. It’s an outlier but come on, a debut at 66 is no mean feat!
So what would you say to that person who is looking down the barrel of their old age, yet still has a desire to write a novel but just doesn’t think they have it in them?
Publish a novella?
Write short stories?
Have a break and then start again?
Or walk away completely?
That last one doesn’t sit well with me.
Any thoughts?
Lisa
PS: Thank you to AI for this delightful main image; even though I repeatedly requested an older person, it insisted on delivering me this stacked bloke in a vest top.
Also, TUNE!!!! ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
Oh, I saw Frank McCord at the Maui Writers Conference in 2000. He was just a hoot. Great guy, such a great book. Re indie publishing, I've been doing it since 2004 w/ my first book, a memoir. I'd pitched at the Maui conference, to no avail, but Dan Poynter, self-publishing guru, was lecturing and I caught him speak twice and said, Why Not? Back then there was no Amazon, so I found a typesetter/formatter, cover artist (no Fivrr then), printer, did my own mktg and publicity. It worked out well. It's still selling on my website, and I've condense-serialized it for Substack. My next 3 books also indie published. At my writers' group, most of the newbies are going for hybrid publishing which costs a bit more, but they don't have to do all the footwork that was entailed for me. I'd say to the person you speak of--to just go for it. There is so much out there now that is available to you as an indie pub. I use Amazon, they do JIT printing, send a check to my account monthly when books sell, it's really a good way to go. If she wants to talk to anyone about it, she can DM me. Always happy to offer some advice.