The Awful Trend of New Years and Diving into the Publishing World

Just once, I'd like to go through a New Year without having to hear about all the awesome easy quick ways to loose weight. As if losing weight is the only resolution that could be made in the world. I'd like to walk into my local bookstore and find a table of, "Seven Rules to being a Good Person" or "Twelve Weeks to a Cheerful Personality" now those are worthy goals. Anyone who read my triathlon segment knows that I have nothing against good health and nutrition. I just think New Year's resolutions should be more inclusive than just the circumference of our waist lines.

For example, one of my goals is to get a million rejections this year. And that's good. Because what that statement really means is that I will do my best to enter the publishing world. It's time to stop dreaming and to start doing.

I find it ironic that I had to find the 'how to be an author/publishing 101' books in a dark lonely corner in the back of a bookstore that markets the hard efforts of millions of authors on every shelf. They were even next to the college textbook section. The NERVE of those Barnes and Noble people. Don't they know that they're only in business because young hopefuls like me are reading books like those? All kidding aside, I discovered some great finds.

First "Your First Novel: a published author and a top agent share the keys to achieving your dream" by Ann Rittenberg and Laura Whitomb. Basically its the conceiving to adulthood step by step guide for any published creative work. So far I'm loving it. With every tip I have to kind of grin to myself and say, "Oh I do that...oh do that to....that? psh, I figured that out when I was ten!....woooo, good idea, I'll use that later."

The other two I bought; "The Art of War for Writers," by James Scott Bell, and "2011 Novel and Short Story Writer's Market," I have yet to deeply look over. The first looked interesting so I got it. It will probably tell me a lot of what the current book I'm studying will tell me, but it's good to get that from more than one point of view. As for the "Market" book, that one was the reason behind my visit. It was suggested by my English professor who dabbles in the publishing industry. He all but said that "any serious author would benefit greatly from buying a current edition of this book." We'll see, Brother H, we'll see. I hope you're right.