Publishing a book is damn hard, like really really hard. This isn’t new information but has been increasingly on my mind (again) since we talked about it in class. I actually used to think about it a lot. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be an author. I wrote extensive fiction, poetry and did my best to enjoy the academic writings I did for class. I loved the idea of creating stories, my name attached to a creation larger than myself. However, there was one aspect of being a writer I simply couldn’t wrap my head around: the publishing process. The idea that my labor of love may never see the light of day because of the publishing conglomerates’ disapproval was a scary thought. Editors, publishing reps, overseas customer service, and manufacturing- all of these people and hoops to jump through scared me. Maybe I was more scared of the word “no “than anything concrete, but my feelings towards the process that is publishing have remained largely the same. To be honest, its rediculous the amount of steps required by publishers for their authors to complete. What is the point of getting a big publisher if they don’t help you with literally anything. Now of course I understand that most of these hoops serve a larger purpose, but what a deterrent to those who may want to explore the idea of publishing without any previous experience or commitment. I’m not surprised though. It’s sad, but I’ve noticed a trend where creative practices like writing, making art, fashion, etc. are only made “easily accessible” to those with the reestablished resources or the free time money provides. Sure, other options exist for publishing such as the self route, or online route- but these options are oversaturated and honestly feel like excuses. They just push the narrative that the average joe can publish on their own, while not accounting for how much harder it is to find any notion of success in these routes. And in a world where it’s hard to pursue creativity without success, this is a problem. I don’t mean to contribute to the type of nihilism that stops potential writers from ever attempting to make a name for themselves, but I think it’s important we acknowledge these inequities.
I will admit talking about this process in class alleviated some of my fears though. I think it’s a classic example of how shedding light on something removes a lot of the anxieties and uncertainties around it (even if it poses more complex questions). Actually hearing from someone who has published two actual books (but isn’t an author by trade) made me actually able to see publishing as perhaps take on the challenge. Here I am doing art, a practice and career with a similar number of loopholes as writing (if not more) and I’m doing my best to survive that. The art field has pushed people into the same financial corner as the writing field so might as well try and take on both, right?
Mass Media & American Life 
I also wanted to be an author when I was younger! I even did some research into the publishing industry when I was 13-14, despite the fact that I had never written a book before. And I agree that your odds of success via the self publishing process are probably pretty slim, but I personally think there’s value in creating something meaningful and important to you, even if you don’t get rich from it.
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