Crisis of writerly confidence

[valarltd]

I'm at THAT STAGE of writing. The point where Neil Gaiman calls his agent and announces he's going to become a garbage collector as he clearly has no talent. The agent just smiles and says brightly, "Ah, we're at THAT STAGE, are we?"

I got two royalty checks this month. They totaled $32.
One book sale netted me a whole 2 cents. I make more than that walking across the parking lot!
The best novel I've written has sold 20 copies, despite good reviews.

I have 2 books, a game book and a short story synopsis in the works.

I am stumped on one book.
I hate the second.
And my muses are side-eying the short story anthology going "Really? You really think you're up to annother funny one?"

Whine whine whine.
Put on your big girl panties and drive the damn bus, Angel.

But someone tell me I'm not hollering down a rainbarrel to hear my own voice?
Someone tell me I'm not devoting my life to writing books no one will read?
Because if no one wants my stories, i've got a house that needs cleaning and blankets to crochet.

Comments

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

The market is shit right now, with consumer confidence low and disposable cash tight. Don't equate the quality of what you're doing with the market being there to support it. You do great work, but you're not an easy fluffy-boink writer - and readers of the tougher stuff seem to have disproportionately less money than the fluffy-boink readers; I don't know why that is, but it's true in every genre - Dan Brown outsells Umberto Eco EVERY TIME.

Chin up, dearie. There's swashbuckling and anarchy in your future, just waiting to be written.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I gotta get through biker gangs and cyberpunk BDSM to get there.

And both of those sound so much cooler than they are...