Mathiya Adams

The Hotdog Detective Mysteries

  • Home
  • My Blog
  • My Books
  • Contact Me!
  • Book Reviews

A Writer’s Ego – Virtual vs Real World Bruises

March 14, 2016 by Mathiya Adams Leave a Comment

All writers have egos. That’s one of the things that drives us to write. We think we have something to say and no one is going to stop us!

Some of us also have sensitive egos. While we fervently believe that what we’re saying is the most important thing ever uttered, we fear how others might react to what we say. For example, I often write about some pretty mean and disgusting characters, and I would dread thinking that anyone confused me for them. I am not the people I write about.

But we’re not just sensitive to how people think about us. We worry a lot about being accepted. More specifically, we worry about not being accepted. We stress over being rejected.

We all know how well writers deal with rejection, particularly when it comes in the form of rejection slips. Some of us have tried to sell our work to the major real world publishing houses, only to find that we don’t meet an editor’s criteria for a successful book, the feeling of having your ego dashed up against a brick wall is all too real.

In the real world, the would-be writer has to deal with rejection.

On the other hand, some of us in the virtual indie world have avoided that horrible problem. Particularly with the advent of self-publishing and publishing on demand, many of us have found the means to avoid the pain and frustration of having our egos beaten into mush with rejection after rejection.

But then we find that even the virtual world finds ways to emulate the cruelties of the real world.

It comes in the form of reader reviews. And criticism.

The nice thing about the real world publishing business is that once you get past the razor curtain of rejection letters and get your book accepted, you suddenly find that you have a lot of people to shield you from the brunt of society’s criticisms. Editors, copywriters, proofers, artists, marketing specialists, even agents, all strive to make your published work something the reading public will love.

And if they don’t, you get dumped pretty quickly.

The real world takes a long time, sometimes a year or two, to tell you that you haven’t done a good job, but trust me, it tells you.

The virtual world makes that process a whole lot simpler. Within an incredibly short period of time, you find out how well loved your work is. Amazon can tell you daily how your book stacks up against all other books offered for sale that day. Reviewers can post their comments about your work for all the world to see.

And on-line critics are not always very nice. Sometimes they are critical just because they can be. Sometimes they are critical because they don’t understand what they’re doing. Sometimes they are critical just to be cruel.

The would-be writer of virtual books has simply substituted having to deal with criticism instead of rejection. Either way, you have to have a pretty strong ego to be a writer.

Filed Under: Writing Life

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Computer Frustrations August 13, 2020
  • Slow But Steady August 12, 2020
  • The Coronavirus Interregnum March 19, 2020
  • New Directions February 27, 2020
  • Happy 2020! January 8, 2020
  • Two New Books Coming! December 23, 2019
  • Re-writing October 14, 2019
  • Almost there! September 28, 2019
  • The Lovesong of Marcus MacFarland September 13, 2019
  • Advertising Campaigns September 5, 2019

Categories

  • Amazon
  • Censorship
  • Christmas story
  • Marketing your book
  • NaNoWriMo
  • New book release
  • New series
  • Novel structure
  • Novella short story
  • The writer's craft
  • Uncategorized
  • Veterans Day
  • World Series
  • Writing Life

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Recent Comments

  • Mathiya Adams on Post Election
  • MaryAnne Pester on Post Election
  • Robert on Writing a Mystery within an Over-arching Trilogy
  • Robert on The First Hotdog Detective Combo Pack!
  • Robert on Things That Interfere with Writing

Archives

  • August 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • April 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • November 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015

Copyright © 2021 · Author Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in