The Writing Life Too

Pale, pale skies this morning and the heat gods are about to open a can of whup ass on us.

I meet a lot of writers who are looking for agents or trying to break into print with a manuscript. Most don't have contacts in the publishing world and some writers believe they can still get published by sending a manuscript to a publishing house--which is pretty much an impossibility these days. One place to start is to read the blogs and interview of good agents. One of the best interviews I've run across is Jofie Ferrari-Adler, an editor at Grove/Atlantic interviewing Molly Friedrich. It's at Poet & Writer online.Molly is a goddess among agents and I strongly suggest that if you don't have an agent and want one, to read the interview because it's packed with info on the publishing biz.

Here is the final question and answer of the extensive interview:
Is there anything you haven't accomplished that you still want to?

"No. I just want to always be in the game. I want to work for at least another ten years. I don't want to retire when I'm in a walker. The reason why this is such a great job, first of all, is that I've been able to work around my children and my life. I have been able to call my hours my own to an unusual extent, in a way that would not have been possible if I stayed at Doubleday. But I have a very highly developed work ethic. I work really hard. What is extraordinary about this business is that we get to be more interesting than we would otherwise be. Because of our work. That's really important. In other words, we do go to dinner parties, and we do meet interesting people, and reading remains and will always remain a great common currency. It's fantastic to work in the world of ideas, and great plots, and the great insights that are given to us by writers. I don't ever want to be far away from that. And I won't be. I refuse. I feel deeply privileged to be in this business. So what if it's changing? I'm not going to change as quickly as it changes—there's room for troglodytes like me. And I'm never going to rest on my laurels. Because if you aren't always excited to get something in that is fresh and new, then you shouldn't be in this business. If you're just going along like a hamster in a wheel, then you've lost the pure white heat that makes this business so much fun. And it should be challenging. That's what separates the great agents from the good agents."