I read a great article recently, really recently, yesterday I think, about how difficult it is to be a professional writer these days. Maybe you saw it.
… and can tell me where it is. The New York Times?, New Yorker? Ah, the perils of vacation. I’ve been grabbing up beautifully prepared words like some ancient Roman glutton at a Las Vegas buffet, a subject the aforementioned article also discussed — how easy it is to read great writing these days, that is; it was silent on the topic of time-traveling gluttons.
My entrepreneuring spirit stirred from its preoccupation with starting a small bread company day job to focus instead on how to identify, make public, and push only the best writing happening today; to cut through the crap and detritus flooding the internet, big-box-bookstores, and online distributors’ offerings to market only the best. I’ll bet you are shaking your head right now because you already know: it’s been done, my friends. And it’s constantly updating in what may be the best, if not exactly perfect, democratic ways.
For a couple of substantive essays on the topic, see the “Discoverability, Part I” and “Discoverability, Part II” blog posts of the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency (Feb. 22 and Feb. 28, 2013). Reading those got me back on Goodreads, a site I guess I joined in 2010 and promptly abandoned… to my loss. Thank goodness, I’ve already got a few friends there. Three kind souls who hung on until I finally logged back in. Oh, but you can import from other social networking sites. So, dear friends, I hope you’ll join up. Tell me what you’re reading, how you like it, and what you think is especially great. Ah, we lucky readers.
