Back-to-Business Monday: WRITERS WHO DON'T NEED ME

I love being part of the Bookanistas, an awesome writer-blogger collective celebrating the books its members love.  I also love some authors who don’t need me, like Lauren Oliver and John Green, Markus Zusak and Suzanne Collins. Don’t get me wrong. I buy their books. I read their books. I learn from their books. I admire their books. But I don’t often blog about them.

Why? Because they just don’t need me. When I started blogging as “Writer on the Side,” I was an in-the-trenches book marketing gumby with dreams of publishing a novel. Now, I’m an in-the-trenches writer. Not a best-seller. Not a highly-paid speaker. Just someone who can’t go a day without writing down some words, who would do it even if no one ever paid her. My community is largely made up of people like me: Living, breathing, learning writers. Sure, a few of us have hit the jackpot with the fat advances and movie deals but, for the most part, we struggle every day with “will I ever be able to quit the day job” kinds of questions.

This is really an irrelevant picture.
Oh, I could make something up about writers being like princesses & ms's being like frogs
But really, it's just an oldie of the hubs and me.
I did make the costumes, though!

I believe writing is an important act whether or not you’re on the NYT-best-seller list—whether or not you ever become a published writer at all. As a blogger and all around book nerd, my goals continue to be to celebrate the value of the writing process and to help bring to light some of the amazing work that might not be right in the middle of the spotlight.

I’d be lying if I said I never dreamed of sharing the stage with some of those writers who don’t need me. Meanwhile, it is with joy and pride and a kind of writerly faith that I present to you each week, the great work so many writers at all levels (not-yet-published, debuts, stunning sophomore novelists, midlist marvels, and the occasional NYTimesy type) are doing.