Reality Check: So you want to be a writer
Sunday, November 30th, 2008 08:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniConstructed by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
autopope, and turned into the wild with permission to use%.
* Age when I decided I wanted to be a writer: 4
* Age when I "wrote" my first story: 4 (by copying out "How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin." Happily, my father pointed out the copyright issues.)
* Age when I got my hands on a typewriter: 14
* Age when I wrote my first novel: This is difficult. I told myself stories all the time; however, I didn't live in an environment where it was safe to commit such things to paper.
* Novels written between age 4 and age 34: 4
* Age when I first submitted a short story to a magazine: 24
* Thickness of file of rejection slips prior to first story sale: I have no idea; the rejection slips file with the story
* Age when I sold my first short story: 28
* Age when I first came close to selling a novel: 25
* Age when that first book deal imploded (prior to publication): 25
* Age when I first sold a non-fiction book: n/a
* Age when I landed a (paid, monthly) magazine column: n/a. I freelanced for a couple of local newspapers for a few years.
* Age when I next wrote a saleable novel: 32
* Age when that novel was published: 36
* Age when the second saleable novel finally sold: 35
* Age when a short story was first shortlisted for the Hugo award: LOL
* Age when the second saleable novel came out: 36
* Age when the third saleable novel came out: 37
* Age when the fourth saleable novel came out: 47
* Age when I first won a Hugo award: LOLx2
* Age when I finally shut down the day-job and became a full-time novelist: 50
* Age when the money coming in exceeded my previous employment: 51
* Age when I returned to the day-job because of publisher implosion: 55
* Age now: 56
* Number of books sold: 20 (novels), 2 (short story collections), edited anthology: 1
* Number of titles in print: 17 (one way or another)
* Number of titles fallen out of print: 1
%Consider this an LJ-meme: if you write professionally, feel free to post your own equivalent of this list. (Obviously you'll need to customize it to track your career path -- but you get the idea.)
autopope, and turned into the wild with permission to use%.* Age when I decided I wanted to be a writer: 4
* Age when I "wrote" my first story: 4 (by copying out "How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin." Happily, my father pointed out the copyright issues.)
* Age when I got my hands on a typewriter: 14
* Age when I wrote my first novel: This is difficult. I told myself stories all the time; however, I didn't live in an environment where it was safe to commit such things to paper.
* Novels written between age 4 and age 34: 4
* Age when I first submitted a short story to a magazine: 24
* Thickness of file of rejection slips prior to first story sale: I have no idea; the rejection slips file with the story
* Age when I sold my first short story: 28
* Age when I first came close to selling a novel: 25
* Age when that first book deal imploded (prior to publication): 25
* Age when I first sold a non-fiction book: n/a
* Age when I landed a (paid, monthly) magazine column: n/a. I freelanced for a couple of local newspapers for a few years.
* Age when I next wrote a saleable novel: 32
* Age when that novel was published: 36
* Age when the second saleable novel finally sold: 35
* Age when a short story was first shortlisted for the Hugo award: LOL
* Age when the second saleable novel came out: 36
* Age when the third saleable novel came out: 37
* Age when the fourth saleable novel came out: 47
* Age when I first won a Hugo award: LOLx2
* Age when I finally shut down the day-job and became a full-time novelist: 50
* Age when the money coming in exceeded my previous employment: 51
* Age when I returned to the day-job because of publisher implosion: 55
* Age now: 56
* Number of books sold: 20 (novels), 2 (short story collections), edited anthology: 1
* Number of titles in print: 17 (one way or another)
* Number of titles fallen out of print: 1
%Consider this an LJ-meme: if you write professionally, feel free to post your own equivalent of this list. (Obviously you'll need to customize it to track your career path -- but you get the idea.)
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-30 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-30 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-01 02:11 am (UTC)I and your readers are extremely glad that you pursued your writing
no subject
Date: 2008-12-02 02:06 am (UTC)* Age when I "wrote" my first story: At age 9 I rewrote The Spaceship in the Apple Orchard by Slobodkin.
* Age when I got my hands on a typewriter: 12
* Age when I wrote my first novel: Define Novel...Actually, I think I started the first one when I was 9...magic age for me, apparently.
* Novels written between age 4 and age 34: Approximately 40+ as I was working on a fantasy series of ten books, a mystery series of which there are 14 that I remember, a kid spy series that ran on for 12-14 books, and of course, the earliest of the fantasy novels that later served as the background for my novel DRAGON'S TONGUE
* Age when I first submitted a short story to a magazine: 14
* Thickness of file of rejection slips prior to first story sale: I could wallpaper SEVERAL rooms...
* Age when I sold my first short story: 33
* Age when I first came close to selling a novel: 30, but it turned out it was a scam publisher so I declined...
* Age when that first book deal imploded (prior to publication): Can't say it imploded at any point.
* Age when I first sold a non-fiction book: n/a
* Age when I landed a (paid, monthly) magazine column: I was a reviewer and columnist for a local paper from 86 to 97, but the only pay I got was books.
* Age when I next wrote a saleable novel: 36
* Age when that novel was published: 46
* Age when the second saleable novel finally sold: 46
* Age when a short story was first shortlisted for the Hugo award: You're kidding right?
* Age when the second saleable novel came out: 46
* Age when the third saleable novel came out: 48?
* Age when the fourth saleable novel came out: 50
* Age when I first won a Hugo award: I'm laughing now...
* Age when I finally shut down the day-job and became a full-time novelist: I'm still working at the day-job.
* Age when the money coming in exceeded my previous employment: I wish...
* Age when I returned to the day-job because of publisher implosion: Never left.
* Age now: 54 (as of tomorrow)
* Number of books sold: 6 novels, 6 novellas, 7 short story collections
* Number of titles in print: 4 novels, 5 novellas, 1 short story collection
* Number of titles fallen out of print: 9
no subject
Date: 2008-12-02 02:36 pm (UTC)