Right?!
It's occurred to me as I'm sending out query letters (yet again to carefully researched literary agents only to get the "this is not the right fit for me" reply when we both know perfectly well that it is because I know the rules of this game and believe you me when I say I read your profile thoroughly to make sure I'm not wasting your time and you asked for YA speculative fiction and so here we are and all you can do is send me a Dear Writer reply when I know YOUR name, and your cat's name, and that you have coffee in the morning at that coffee shop around the corner from your apartment, Suzan. I love the blue cardigan you wore on Monday, by the way...), patiently waiting for someone to give me permission to be an author.
That doesn't sound quite right now, does it? If I was an artist, I could sell paintings. If I was a potter, I could sell pottery. If I was a musician, I could play my guitar on a street corner and people might give money if they liked it, or pay me to stop. Either way, I could make a living.
Writing fiction doesn't work that way.
No one's going to buy my short stories neatly printed and hand-bound at a craft market, are they? And people may argue that writing stories isn't a vocation but it most certainly is. If it weren't for creative writers there would be no songs, no movies, no stage plays, no Shakespeare. No Game of Thrones. Imagine that. Imagine a world without story tellers.
Now, with that being said, I'm just a Afrikaans girl with only a quarter of a writing degree behind my name who's likes writing stories. And I've been thinking long and hard about this permission business. The face of publishing has changed. We don't have to ask for permission anymore. Indie publishing has never been this easy. I want to give Amazon's KDP a go. What do I have to lose? Yes, I know, I've heard the shady stories too. But Andy Weir's The Martin. Just look at how well KDP turned out for him. Just luck, I hear you mumble. I'll take my chances. It's a helluva lot better than sitting around waiting for permission.
Disclaimer: There is no Suzan and I do not stalk literary agents or any other individuals who may assist me with advancing my career. But if there is a coffee loving lit agent named Suzan who owns a cat and a blue cardi reading this, I think we should talk.