Shared Experience

Writing is a solitary experience. Head down, staring at the screen, hands trying to keep up the pace of thoughts which race ahead; sometimes in logical flow, other times in confused torrents. It could not really be any other way. Indeed, I think that's why I enjoy writing so much.

Getting published is not. It's a group experience with many competing interests and influences. There are many analogies to child birth. The result is something new, of course, but its similarity is that the creation of a book is largely done in private, like conceiving a child, but the publication of it is something that involves many people, like the delivery of a child in hospital.

Also, the author, like prospective parents, is urged to trust the professionals; the agent, the editor and publisher. But what does an author do when that goes wrong, when the professionals turn out to be charlatans or even fraudsters, albeit unwitting ones?

Fortunately, there is help for the author locked in solitary confinement. He just needs to raise his head, lift himself out of his self-imposed exile. Here's one I wished I'd found earlier.

http://accrispin.blogspot.co.uk/