Here’s this week’s weblog tour question:
What is your dream job, and if you don’t/didn’t have it, how did that happen?
My dream job would be to write as a mid-list fiction author. I don’t have it. Yet. I intend to at some point.
A mid-list author would be someone who sells fiction but isn’t Stephen King. In other words, you turn out one or two books in any given year, and in any given year you sell around twenty thousand copies. You’ve got a following; you’re making money for your publishing house; you have incentive to learn and you don’t have to worry about disappointing millions if you drastically change your style.
Mid-list authors can experiment. They can continue learning and not feel pressured to turn out the same story or write in the same style. If they miss their deadline, five hundred people in the book industry won’t be out of a job.
As a mid-list author, you will have a few devoted fans and not many people writing reviews saying you suck. You won’t have to worry about disappointing a vast segment of the reading public; in fact, if you do write one disappointing work, most people will probably return because you’ve got a stable, steady track record.
You will occasionally get interviewed by the newspaper and sometimes you’ll endorse someone else’s novel, but you won’t have total strangers mailing you their manuscripts and asking you to say it’s every bit as good as your own.
If you’re a mid-list author and walk through a New York City subway car and see someone reading your book, you’ll feel terrific for weeks. If you’re selling as much as Stephen King or Anne Rice and walk through a New York City subway car to find that no one is reading one of your books, you’ll feel bummed.
In theory, I could have had this job already if I’d played my cards right back when The Guardian was in print (and sold 28,000 copies). I should have insisted on having the publisher look over another angel-themed book immediately (I had two more up my sleeve) but I took their advice and didn’t submit it until after The Guardian was selling well. And then I submitted a well-written book that was drastically different from the first. They rejected that, and another non-angel book, and then my editor got forced out of the publishing house. My book went out of print, and I was back at square one.
A decade later, I’m going to have to start over. And that’s okay. I think if I’d gone on to success back then, my ego by now would be unbearable and God would be spending lots of time taking me down a peg or two. Or eight.
But I would like it to happen eventually, and I’ll keep working toward it.
—
Other stops on the weblog tour are:
http://meganeileen2005.typepad.com/ twinkletoes
http://thatsloanegirl.blogspot.com/ CathyF
http://wryexchange.com/ Wry Exchange
http://www.absentmindedhousewife.com/ beckygoesape
http://verycontrary.wordpress.com/ Contrary
http://amandagorby.blogspot.com/ amanda_tg
http://whatsmylife.blogspot.com/ grinningcomb
http://nolechica.livejournal.com nolechica
http://addierambles.blogspot.com andra
http://la-eme.livejournal.com MsMoonbunny
http://mischief0617.wordpress.com/ CrowGirl
http://www.housewife2000.blogspot.com housewife2k
http://fatgirlartist.blogspot.com/ Amy Rose
http://lulupop.wordpress.com Lulupop
http://chrisnada.livejournal.com/ Cnada
http://robandkrista.blogspot.com/ CelticGemini
http://anime-coroner.livejournal.com/. AllyKat
http://www.drunkenhousewife.com/ The Drunken Housewife
http://ladyj3000.blogspot.com/ LadyJ3000
http://heartstart.livejournal.com Heartstar1
http://hijinksshenanigans.blogspot.com/ Hijinks’s Shenanigans
http://deltatangosgbs.blogspot.com/ afbluebelle
http://sarahesperanza.wordpress.com/ SquishyMooMoo
http://www.dutifuldanielle.blogspot.com/ dpbenson
http://sinkingtent.blogspot.com/ ladiedeathe
I have already lived my dream job…sort of. When I was younger, I used to moderate College Bowl matches. In other words, I was a GAME SHOW HOST.
Believe it or not, when kids were dreaming of being an astronaut, a cowboy, or a policeman….I wanted to be Bob Barker. When I was a kid, I used to buy home version of game shows. Forget the action figures. 🙂
Now, if I could do it for the big bucks for real. But I lived my dream. And now that I write about the business I love, and podcast it every week…I kind of still do.
Cool, huh?
It sounds like you’re on your way to an attainable goal.
re: bucket list and publishing
When I say published I mean academically, and journal rather than book. Not that my name in a sports magazine wouldn’t thrill me. Thanks for the idea though.
Hi, I was the person on the subway reading your book. 😉
Thanks, Jenni! If only I’d been on the subway at the same time, it would have made history.
Nolechica, we’ll find out in a few weeks whether I’ve attained at least one part of the goal. I’m not holding my breath, though. Getting in the door is the toughest part, but the rest isn’t easy either. 🙁
FUN, though. 🙂
Well, you’re already a higher-than-mid-list fanfiction author, so that counts for something.
My dream job, stay-home-Mom, isn’t the one I expected, but it turns out I don’t have the stamina (physical, emotional and self-discipline) for what I expected to be my dream job, and the other jobs I tried, and I enjoy this one when I do it. (I tend to get sidetracked, and not do the job well, and no one enjoys a job they don’t do well.) Seems the boring, lazy way out sometimes, and I’d love to add something else if I decide what, but other times it’s really fulfilling.
Nolechica, I’m sorry but your comment got caught in the spam filter! I only realized it was there today. 🙁
Academic publishing is a different breed entirely, yeah. I wish you lots of luck in achieving that!
When I interviewed at yet another recruiter’s office yesterday, I realized that I have already had my dream job, working as a manual writer for Sega. It wasn’t the constant game-playing, but rather the opportunity for creativity that made it so wonderful. The hours I spent listening to the Sonic CD soundtrack and recreating icon illustrations. The summer vacation I spent playing “Mega Bomber Man” and inflicting truly horrid puns on my readers. The hero worship I inspired in my niece and nephew.
Happy times.