Midlist Writer: The Midlist Writer. . .Forty Years Later

Monday 28 April 2008

The Midlist Writer. . .Forty Years Later

I'm working on a bunch of articles at the moment, but the most interesting for me is one I'm doing on other midlisters. I'm not interviewing newbie midlisters like yours truly. I've only been in the book business for six years, so what do I know? I'm interviewing people like Jane Toombs, who has been writing for 35 years and has published more than 80 books, and Sally Odgers, who has been writing for 40 years and published 240 books.

Learning about these people's careers is exhausting. Assuming I don't become a bestseller (and let's face it, most writers never do) then this is what I have to look forward to. Augh! The eyestrain, the stress with editors, the decades of uncertain paychecks. . .

On the positive side, all the writers I've interviewed still love their work and have stories to tell. I hope I can say the same in the year 2038. Hey, I already have about ten years worth of ideas, and in those ten years I can probably come up with the next ten years of projects. That could go on until I drop dead.

Jack Williamson, "the Dean of Science Fiction", wrote a book when he was 96.

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