Before the internet, newspapers and magazines used to feature small adverts that proclaimed ‘Become a Published Author.’ These ads were to be found nestled in the section before the obituaries but after the lonely hearts and side by side with fortune tellers and Mediums. There was something murky about the ‘Published Author’ proposition as an ‘agency’ fee was required. Paying to get your work in print was known as ‘vanity publishing’ and appealed to the naïve, credulous and inexperienced. No legitimate publishing house would ever expect an author to pay to see their work in print. Now the age of the internet is upon us, those little adverts have vanished into the ether to be replaced by a far more sophisticated racket. Kindle has opened the floodgates to faux agents, faux tutors, faux journalists and faux promotion as well as faux publishers who all for a fee will enable your literary ambitions to be realized. Fussy formulas for writing books are also widespread and largely serve to hinder the creative process. There seems to be no direct source to these new rules, rather they exist and are followed. I noticed a young woman appealing to the #writingcommunity for advice as she couldn’t plot mood changes without upsetting the plot’s progress. The problem with adhering to a ‘formula’ is that the writer’s output will be process driven and lacking originality. Then there is the fallacy of ‘Beta Readers’ – the literary novice is advised to give out their transcript to family and friends to read for their feedback but these aren’t professionals and too many opinions are likely to send the project off course. The aspiring writer must develop an inner voice. None of the literary greats needed to follow other people’s directions, the joy of their craft is in their individuality and their unique expression. Their work still rings true decades long after they first put pen to paper or pounded the keys of their typewriter. Can you imagine Virginia Woolf, Willa Cather, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, William Burroughs, Jane Austen, Angela Carter, Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde and other literary luminaries meekly submitting to writing templates?
There used to be a saying: ‘Everyone has got a book in them’ but not everyone has a good book in them. Playing upon would-be author’s ambitions for a price is unethical, although this goes against the grain of modern thinking where encouragement rather than discernment is the focus, which makes people wide open to advantage takers. Of course everyone wants to find the winning lottery ticket and so there is the belief that self-publication might bring the author to the attention of the literary establishment. It has been known to happen now and again. The authors who do best out of self-publishing are the ones who are already well known. If you want to be an author, avoid formulas and run free with your ideas. It is a very difficult path to tread and few get rich but if writing is your vocation then you must try. Anyone who tells you that writing is a career is sorely mistaken. Writing is a craft, an art, a calling from deep within for self-expression. Of course, education helps but the need to fashion something out of nothingness and the ability to create an original work cannot be taught.
Nina Antonia 