My friend Matt who reads this here blog and saw me speak at Hopkins last week sent along this article about the L.A. Times Festival of Books and the rediculously long lines at the "How Do I get an Agent?" panel. I was reminded of the talk I gave on Sunday at the Marin County chapter of the California Writers Club. For an hour I thought (immodestly) that I held the audience enrapt. I told then you don't need an agent to succeed as a writer, you don't need a publisher to say, "Yes it's ok now to call yourself a writer." You need to declare it for yourself, to work, work, work, at writing wherever you can, to belong to a literary community and to support that community with your efforts.
After I finished, a very nice woman raised her hand and said "I hear what you're saying but that sounds like a lot of work. How do I get an agent?"
Friends, it is a lot of work. The other arts (musicians, painters, actors) accept this and do it anyway, whether or not they have any external validation. When was the last time you heard the bass player of your average bar band say "well, I'm not really a musician because an agent/label/whomever hasn't discovered me yet."
Aspiring writers labor under some absurd notion that those who have "made it" as writers, our Michael Chabons, our Ann Patchetts, are from some farwaway land, where the secrets of the trade are released from a golden box for all to share. But here on earth, the only recourse they feel they have is to mail piles of submissions to agents and publishers in hopes of being one of those lottery stories where a secretary likes the typeface on the title page, recommends it to their boss and tomorrow they're being handed the National Book Award.
It's a myth. Writing is work. Lots of it. A career's worth. Those folks you see winning the awards and getting interviewed by Charlie Rose have been at it for years, often with no recognition, little money, and no publisher's reassurance. And the sitting at your desk and crafting beautiful sentences is only the first half, just like composing music is only the first part of making it as a band.
How to be a writer is not a secret. You want to write, like for a living? Start small, zines, web sites, places that need content. Use those clips to work up, first to your local newspaper, then small magazines, then bigger papers, then national magazines. Read in public whereever they will let you. Get known in your community as a writer. Keep a mailing list. Make your admirers easy to read you and see you perform. Create a buzz around yourself and your work. This can all be done without agent, publisher, or anyone's permission. Know who Neal Pollack is? He read his work is the men's room and at the post office. He got arrested for disturbing the peace. Say what you want about his attitude. He's got two books out already.
You wanna be a writer? Be active about it. Don't wait for anyone's permission. Get in there and work at it. You can do it. We all can. The only one stopping you is you.
Go to it. It's a blast.
Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times edited by Kevin Smokler
The Customer Is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles edited and compiled by Jeff Martin. Essay by me on page 45.
