There is More Than One Path... or You Don't Need a Publisher or Agent to be a REAL Writer
Going through the various bits and pieces, today - FB, Email, blog pass - and it hit me again that the amount of pressure there is on new writers to find an agent and follow a traditional publishing path is incredible. All of the attitudes, worries, myths, fears, prejudices, and pressures that I encountered when I started out in 1991 are STILL THERE. And they're wrong. It doesn't have to be this way. I've been seeing a lot of it lately, and it really bothers me that the majority of the writing industry tries to tie new writers to a traditional path - and many 'established' writers support that...even though the industry does not necessarily support them ...even though they cannot make a living solely from their writing...even though their colleagues and friends fight them for the (very few) publishing slots available in a traditional publisher's schedule. If you look around, today, there are very few traditionally published writers who can make their rent, let a