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Excerpt from Interview With Thriller Author Diane Capri
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Today’s post is written
by Debra Eve.
What can you tell writers with families and day jobs about keeping the
faith?
I often speak to groups of aspiring authors
who worry that they’ll never “make it,” because the field is “too crowded”
and they’re “not good enough” and it’s “too hard to get published.” I tell
them the truth: Believe me, not everyone wants to write a book.
In fact, millions of people don’t even want to
read a book, let alone write one. Yes, writing is a competitive business.
What work of any value is not competitive? But I believe that desire is a
gift; we don’t desire to do things we have no talent for; and if you have a
desire to write, you have at least some talent for it.
I can easily prove this to you by
demonstrating all the things I have absolutely no desire to do, and even less
talent for. (Like football. Seriously? Not only do I throw like a girl, I
can’t catch, either!) If you have the desire to write, you have talent, and
it’s up to you to develop that talent.
There are so many platitudes out there about
never giving up and perseverance. But they’re all true. You can’t succeed if
you don’t try. Don’t
get discouraged when you hear “overnight success” stories. Most of
the time, overnight success takes at least ten years!
The best news in today’s market is that
writers can self-publish and actually reach our readers, which gives us all
so many more options than we had before. Almost every author I know is
self-publishing something. (And I know a lot of authors!)
If you have the desire and you’re willing to
do the work, you can be a published author. No extraordinary faith required.
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