Writing Goal

A couple of months ago, I emailed back and forth with one of the organizers of Love Is Murder about pitching to agents at the conference.

"Don't forget to pitch to editors, too," she said. "After all, the goal is to be published, however that comes about."

In the end, I decided against pitching to the editors who were at that meeting, just because I didn't feel like any of them were the right fit for this project at this time. (From their own words about what they're looking for, I believe they'd agree.) But I've been thinking about what the conference organizer said ever since.

"After all, the goal is to be published, however that comes about."

I've decided that I do not agree. That's not the primary goal, not for me.

I'm not just dying to see my name on a spine, my search result on Amazon. (As it turns out, there are 3 search results for me at Amazon.com, though none of a novel with me as the author, of course.) I'm not that anxious to have my book out there, to be able to tell people that I'm a published novelist.

I want to produce the best work that I possibly can, and that means working with talented, dedicated people who "get" me, who love my work, and who want to help make my writing better.

I also want to build a career out of this.

Those are my goals. It's not "just" to be published.

1) Write the best story I can write.

2) Build a career out of it.