To Be or Not To Be Broccoli

Or cauliflower as the case may be.

Do you want to be produce?  Do you want tradpub to think of you as something past its sell-by date.

Speaking of which, I was told by a fill-in-the-blank agent that I was too old to write for kids, I didn't understand them.  Class.  What's my best selling book at the moment?  Anyone?  Bueller?  That's right.  Dream Horse.  That's older than the beech telling me I stink as a writer.  Do you have to be 9 to write for 9 year olds?

Writers are routinely mistreated and humiliated but here's the thing.  The kind of money you make in television makes it worth your while.  I am so uninterested in hearing about how it's business.  There is nothing and SHOULD BE NOTHING that forces publishing houses to do the right thing and treat people better.  And there's nothing to prevent us at this point that we finally have a choice to abandon those buzzards and go off on our own.

If there are hard feelings, "hurt writer feelings" to quote Laura Zigman from yesterday's animation, there's a reason for it based in fact and experience.  If a writer chooses to go with trad pub that's fine with me but I don't want to hear the explanations and excuses for their bad behavior.

Writing is not "produce".  A writer is not the manufacturer of hula hoops any more than a ballet dancer is the manufacturer of tap shoes.  This is not a production line.  You're dealing with a person, a human being with an emotional investment in their work.  They deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.