Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion
Bulletin Board
>
I don’t want to be famous… anymore
date
newest »
newest »
Beautiful, pal. I like what you've got here and it's a good philosophy. The definition of success is different for everyone and I do think that being famous is a strange and misguided one. That's partly why I write under a pen name. I don't want strangers who meet me to instantly know about my books I guess. I read somewhere, "In the end, what matters most is how well did you live, how well did you love, how well did you learn to let go?"
And I liked it when you said that a normal life was a non-writing life. Ha. Normal to who? Writing is such a good constructive use of time. I'm not in any danger of getting famous...yet, but I still wouldn't give up my hours and hours that I spend writing.
Great sentiments, F.F. Thanks for responding. Love that quote.
I would do some twerking if it would sell books.Great post.
Funny, one of the reasons I love writing is that, unless you get your face plastered on posters and tv screens, you can live in relative anonymity. Even if you have a recognisable author photo on the dust jacket of your novels, it's easier for authors to avoid the limelight than it is for people in other creative fields. Apart from meeting with people in the publishing industry, you don't need to do book signings and, while some people might miss your presence at the Frankfurter Buchmesse, you don't have to do all that as long as you publish regularly.
Of course, if you want to be 'famous' you have to put more of an effort into appearances, but an author doesn't have to be a public figure like a film director or a musician. Although J.J. Cale did a pretty good job avoiding the limelight.
I always associate the quest for fame with a need to be validated, but many people who want to be famous will soon realize that fame comes with a dark side of obsessive fans and people who cling to the famous to become famous themselves (like Kato Kaelin).
I met a few famous people in Amsterdam, who come here mainly because the Dutch consider it uncool to fawn over celebrities, allowing famous actors to walk around without getting followed by throngs of fans. The idea of being bothered by people and having to cultivate a public persona because there are always paparazzi around seems to be like an incredibly stressful existence.
Apart from that, I glean a lot of information from quietly observing people and talking to people without revealing that I'm an author. I can imagine that people behave differently around famous writers...
Another good article Neil. I think your feelings on this are what we all tend to feel or have felt at one time. We all have that want and need to become famous with our writing but as to how many of accomplish this is small. It isnt until we give up that very thought and just write because that we love to that our fame tends to come knocking. No author should make their goal to be famous it should be to write and put out quality work and please and appease to the public and if the fame comes at some point? All the more great.
I had always hoped that my writing would support me and spent years trying to achieve that goal. In the meantime, I kept advancing in my "real" work and now make enough that I don't need the pressure of making a living from my writing. Now, it's more for myself and my own obsession.
Neil wrote: "I had always hoped that my writing would support me and spent years trying to achieve that goal. In the meantime, I kept advancing in my "real" work and now make enough that I don't need the pressu..."You raise a good point about economic pressure. I think one reason we've seen such a flood in independent publishing is the Great Recession and the slow economic recovery (no thanks to a certain group more worried about things besides growing the economy). People are doing ANYTHING and EVERYTHING they can think of to try to earn money. The scary thing is that even poor or occasional sales is so badly needed that people do not care.
So that adds in a lot of people who otherwise might not write or consider publishing what they write to go ahead and try. In this economy, there's little to lose by the attempt. Even if your work is not all that good or gets poorly reviewed, if you make five or ten dollars here or there from the occasional purchase, you have just put one more meal on your family table.
We must do better on this. This anything for a buck economy undermines more than just the arts.
Many writers are natural introverts (not all, just many), so it's almost characteristically contradictory to seek the limelight while chasing such a profession. Like others have said, writing is one of those rare creative professions that potentially allows people to reap pretty healthy rewards (book deals, numerous sales) while enjoying the comfort of relative anonymity (at least compared to musicians and actors).
That said, if you want to be a writer AND be famous, you can always go the Tucker Max route and write raunchy "non-fiction".
In every medium, there exists the controversial, and if one wants it badly enough, the fame will eventually come knocking.
When I graduated college my father gave me a book on how to succeed in a corporate interview. He thought it might come in handy when I went out looking for a job. I told him I appreciate all he’s done and his advice, but I wanted to be a famous writer. A week later, I moved to Seattle WA, to live out the hippie-writer life. That was in 1993.
I always dreamed of hitting it big with my books. Selling millions of copies and spending my days sitting on a dock in Key West living out the Hemingway dream while tourists and fans come up and asked for my autograph. All through the 1990’s and well into the new millennium I worked obsessively; writing, querying, making publishing connections, always with that dream of getting famous pushing at the back of my mind and driving me to sacrifice a normal, non-writing life.
For twenty years, I’ve penned novels, short stories, poetry, screenplays, and blog posts. I’ve been recognized by several prestigious writing groups and contests, been interviewed by television, newspaper, and magazines, had a top NY agent for five years, and sold enough books to say I’m mildly successful. But is that enough? I’m not famous.
As I sit here getting older, spending my days trying to get the world to notice my work, I’ve come to the realization that I no longer want to be famous. Getting famous is not so much about possessing raw talent anymore, it’s about interviews, and skyping, and tweeting, and keywords, and twerking, and surrounding yourself with promoters and marketers who are only interested in you making them money. Ask Miley Cyrus what she went through to make her new album premier at #1 on the charts? A whole lot more than I’d want to do.
I no longer want to be famous because I’ve discovered that I enjoy my anonymity. Recently, I attended a social event in which several people there had read some of my books. I actually felt uncomfortable at the attention they gave me. I would have rather talked about something other than myself that night, but that’s just me.
I don’t write to inflate my ego or attract attention. I write because I have to. I’m hard-wired to do it. I don’t want to invest the tens of thousands of hours and dozens of people it takes to make me a super-star author. I just want to write my books and tell my stories. To all the authors out there spending thousands of hours and dollars trying to hit it big, I applaud your efforts and hope you all become famous. Personally, I prefer living in the shadows.
To read more about me and my books please check out my blog: ALWAYS WRITING
Click here to read my blog!
http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com