Author has been my dream job since I was a little kid. I’m proud of myself for building a writing career and incredibly grateful to have found readers who enjoy my stories.
Still, even dream jobs have downsides. So, in the spirit of the Tears for Fears song I had stuck in my head the other day, These Are the Things I Could Do Without:
- Writing blurbs. Those are the brief summaries that appear in book listings and on the backs of print books. They have to be short, and they should be catchy enough to make everyone want to buy the book. They should also convey a little bit—but not too much!—about the story. They’re really hard to do well.
- Writing synopses. This is a longer summary, generally a couple of pages long. It goes to agents and publishers. You basically have to take all the fun out of a story as you boil it all down to a few hundred words. Ugh.
- Finding agents. I don’t have an agent. I’ve tried (and failed) a couple of times. It’s time-consuming and soul-crushing. Lots of agents don’t respond at all. Of those that do, almost all send back a form rejection. It can take months and months. I recently received a response from an agent I’d queried nine months earlier (they wanted to see more of the manuscript, which by now already has a publishing contract anyway).
- Marketing. In an ideal world, my book would be published and instantly everyone would know about it and would be clamoring to buy it. In real life, authors need to let people know that a book exists, and they need to convince people that the book is worth their money and time. Some people are wonderful at this. I’m not one of them.
- Waiting. I’m not patient. The time between finishing a manuscript and getting into readers’ hands can be really long—sometimes well over a year. Here I am with this story I loved writing, and I can’t wait for people to meet my characters, but I have to wait. Torture.
That’s about it. Not a very long list. My list of things I love about being an author would be much more extensive.
What’s your least favorite aspect of your job?
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Kim Fielding is the bestselling author of numerous m/m romance novels, novellas, and short stories. Like Kim herself, her work is eclectic, spanning genres such as contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and historical. Her stories are set in alternate worlds, in 15th century Bosnia, in modern-day Oregon. Her heroes are hipster architect werewolves, housekeepers, maimed giants, and conflicted graduate students. They’re usually flawed, they often encounter terrible obstacles, but they always find love.
After having migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States, Kim calls the boring part of California home. She lives there with her family and her day job as a university professor, but escapes as often as possible via car, train, plane, or boat. This may explain why her characters often seem to be in transit as well. She dreams of traveling and writing full-time.
Follow Kim:
Website: http://www.kfieldingwrites.com/
Facebook: http://facebook.com/KFieldingWrites
Twitter: @KFieldingWrites
Email: Kim@KFieldingWrites.com
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/bau3S9
A complete list of Kim’s books: http://www.kfieldingwrites.com/books/
Interesting .. I’d never really considered these elements before.
that’s pretty amazing that you do all of this, given how much you write and how well you write. i’ve wondered how you juggle it all – nice to hear about some parts beyond great characters and good stories!