Be Thankful for Books (And the Writers That Write Them)
This Thanksgiving, take a moment to send a thanks out to all the toiling writers who have spent countless hours hunkered down over their computers, crafting those eagerly anticipated novels you curl up with in front of the fire, where along with your glass of wine or hot cocoa, you let yourself travel to some distant land or faraway realm and soar. Books bring us countless hours of pleasure, but for every hour of pleasure you get from a standard length novel, the writer has put in at least 100 hours. Think about that. And for all but a few of the notable and successfully marketed authors, the financial reward is a pittance for their time. Writing books is a lot like raising kids: they are an enormous amount of work and sacrifice but every so often, there are moments of joy that make it all worthwhile.
At a recent book signing event, I was able to meet and engage with young readers of my Legends of Orkney series. To be honest, I’ve put in far more than that 100 hours of work per hour of reading, but these young fans were so eager to soak up the details of where I got my ideas and what on earth was going to happen next, I couldn’t help but be smitten all over again with a love of writing. So the hours of work become irrelevant and the author is hooked into writing more and more stories so that they can live to see the excitement in their reader’s eyes. If you’re a struggling or budding author, know that the journey ahead is long and hard, but the joy of having satisfied readers is an enormous payoff. If you are an avid reader, send a shout out to your favorite authors. Let them know you appreciate the work they put into their novels. So often today, the internet allows us to become anonymously critical and distant from the things we take for granted. Take time this Thanksgiving to be thankful to those writers for their efforts. Without them, books wouldn’t exist.
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