What Happens At Writers' Group

At writers' group last week we discussed Writing Secret No. 1 Is Keep Your Day Job a recent essay by Gina Barreca. Barreca has written or edited or co-written sixteen books. She's been published in many major publications and received a lot of press. This is some of what she has to say about writing/publishing, annotated by moi:

"About 17 people make enough money from writing to purchase both a coffee and a bagel every day." A bagel with cream cheese is $3.69 at Dunkin' Donuts. I am told that a cup of coffee there is $2.12. Let's say we're talking $5.70 a day. Multiply it by 365 days, and you come up with $2,080. That's real money for a lot of writers.

"I still carry books to sell out of the trunk of my car. If you've ever met me, you know I'm not kidding." I've never done that. I should have. I'm not kidding.

"Bookstores can only afford to keep a limited number of titles on their shelves and, except for classic or best selling authors, they only keep those titles for a few months at a time. What happens to books after that?" You don't want to know. It's like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie.

"Writing and publishing are blood sports." This actually made me feel pretty good. Tough, in fact. I engage in blood sports. How cool is that?

I came home pumped up!