Comments on: Do you fantasise about writing a book?

By: Dion Forster

Dion Forster — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:45:42 +0000

Ah, yes, publishing in South Africa! I agree almost entirely with your sentiments, particularly the point that one should have some other means of generating your income! If that is the case, and you have the time, then I say write to your heart’s content! I have 6 books, 3 of which I give away for free download. I would rather have people engage with the thoughts than pay me for them… But then, I have a ‘day job’

As always, a fantastic, witty, insightful column!

Regards,

Dion

By: Phillipa Lipinski

Phillipa Lipinski — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:01:49 +0000

Sarah, this is so sad. I love your book; “The South African Insult” (so does my husband) and I didn’t know you were having such a difficult time. I honestly wish you the best.
Look on the bright side, being a published writer has provided you many opportunities to write in newspapers and blogs- so it has not all been in vain.

By: Dustin Flower

Dustin Flower — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:51:57 +0000

Lynne: Perhaps if I added erroneous question marks, ‘monkey’s tails’, and some poorly placed hyphens, I would make more sense to you. I have to thank you for the second part of your post, you’ve made it clear that the author (Sarah) is disillusioned at not making money off of her very important writings, and so would like to discourage anyone else from feeling that they may have something worthwhile to share with everyone else. Just as a point of interest,book sales are down 20% or so and have been dropping for some time. Perhaps authors (being wittier than everyone else) should not blame their audience and get creative (but that would just be silly, wouldn’t it, since they’re already so beaming with intelligence)?

By: Innocent Ndima

Innocent Ndima — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:08:09 +0000

Hayi,Sarah,it can’t be that bad.Maybe it’s about quality of the book.Either way ,you decide not to pen that word for economic reasons but, you would still have to find a way to prop up your ego which is never cheap anyway.Or are you discouraging us from giving you a competition Sarah.Nice piece anyway.

By: Lu

Lu — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:50:39 +0000

gee I don’t know hey… by success you mean best sellers?
My favourite authors are not big-time-famous authors, they have written between 2-3 book. I wait every year to for see if they are releasing anything…

If they had this attitude and they gave up, I would be a very disappointed reader…

I get what you are trying to say.. that if you are an aspiring writer hoping to make it big in the book world, get ready for disappointment… get it

But imagine if Stephanie Meyer and JK Rowling had given up… imagine

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:19:42 +0000

If you write for fame and fortune then yes – prospects are bleak.

If you write to enjoy the moments of satisfaction when you pen something decent (by design or more likely by accident) – then it is not so awful.

My advice would be to make a career out of the things you don’t mind doing, but make a hobby out of the things you love.

By: Andrew Slaughter

Andrew Slaughter — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:13:38 +0000

Try writing peer reviewed journal articles. They don’t need to be entertaining. No book signings, no worrying about whether people are buying your books. They are just useful in whatever obscure field you happen to work in. And people will cite your articles for their own obscure work, thereby giving one some sense of leaving a legacy.

Your description of the experiences of writing a book are in many ways the same as writing a thesis. However when writing a thesis, one has no delusions of many people wanting to read it when it’s finished. The loneliness, sacrifice of social life etc are the same.

By: Beerboep

Beerboep — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:09:36 +0000

There is a book in me, I have always known this, and I hope to write it someday. I will work hard at getting it published, and will not have any feelings of underachievement. In fact the opposite is true. To complete a manuscript that I am satisfied with will fill me with a sense of pride and achievement, and to hell with those publishers that lack the ability to recognise genius. Should I be fortunate enough to find that elusive competent publisher, I will work harder than any of their staff to achieve all the things you claim the publisher will not. After the work of art has sold 5 copies to my bestest friends and is removed from the shelves, I shall sit back and marvel at the obvious lack of ability in the potential readers of my masterpiece. But there will only ever be a sense of achievement. If the effort merits more reward than the reward itself, then success has been achieved.

By: Mike Kretschmer

Mike Kretschmer — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 04:55:47 +0000

Sarah:
….why I write only short stories and ‘publish’ them on various forums.
And I do it because I KNOW I am funny and witty and insightful and I touch at least 5 people out of the 100 who read my drivel and sometimes I read something in a newspaper that I find screamingly funny and there is no recognition for the writer and what I propose is that ‘we’ get together – get smashed whilst reading our stories to each other and pour scorn on the more succesful ones .
Ah – gad – immortality beckons but not for us .
You may even get a hint of my identity from the weird punctuation .

On a serious note – my best effort has led many to ask me when I would publish it and i was years and miles ahead of you in your lament! I could not face the agony/rejection/editing/let-down/sucidal rages at publishers etc.

What a wise failure I am!
I hope people will learn from me.
Write by all means, send your tracts to all and sundry, cherish the giggles and the praise – after all – these people know you.

But if you persist you better write like Grisham and you have a faithful reader in me.

By: CB

CB — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 04:48:32 +0000

Geez, Sarah, if everyone does this, there’ll be no more books to read! And if musicians and artists follow suit, then no more music or art either. Just a thought ….