Publishing: It’s Not About the Money

From First Second Books:

Over the winter holiday break, I watched the beginning of Murder, She Wrote, which I had never seen before. I was bemused to find that the protagonist writing a book and getting it published (having never met, talked to, or corresponded with her editor, publicist, or publisher at all prior to the book’s publication date) and in a matter of a few short days after publication getting on the New York Times Best-Seller List, afterwards getting on all the morning tv and radio shows. She was in fact so popular that her publisher brought her to New York City to stay there in a hotel indefinitely just in case (as far as I could tell) any future media requests came up. Realism was brought in only inasmuch as Fictional!Writer Jessica Fletcher does not hit #1 on the New York Times Best-Seller List — just #2.

So in the interest of fairness, aboveboardness, and honesty, I feel that I should let you know — aspiring writers and artists, this is not your life.