Wednesday, October 08, 2008

The Writer's Life

I just published a book on writing...I had to rewrite it five times before my editor accepted it.
The moral is:  writing always involves rewriting.

Now I've sent off a book on ways of analyzing objects and artifacts--material culture
and am waiting to see how many times I have to rewrite it.

One problem I face...which all writers face...is that sometimes you lose editors...who
move to other jobs, leave publishing, whatever.  When you "lose" an editor, you've
lost someone who suggests new books, who helps you get them through the editorial
committee at publishers, etc.  In addition, I've "lost" several publishers...who either
were absorbed by bigger publishers or went out of business.  So now, despite a rather
long list of books, it seems harder to get stuff published than it was when I was just
beginning.

I'm retired and don't have to publish to avoid "perishing" but I still like to write,
so it isn't easy.  I'm also used to being rejected by editors...par for the course.  The
important thing is not to dwell on the rejection but figure out someone to send the
article or book to and face the prospect of being rejected again.