Writing and Reading

Whaaaaa? What kind of title is that? Purple Acorns…. Purple…. Acorns….

Have I gone mad? Has metaphor madness invaded my already sick and crazed mind? To an extent. Is it necessarily a disease? Not at all. In fact, I love metaphors. I think they are jewels in the desert. I only bring lots of water and a camel when I go searching for them, though. And then I make sure I have enough water for the ride home after discovering my little nuggets of treasure. Cute little nuggets of treasure.

But, again, I digress (as always). I have a point here when I say “Purple Acorns!” Yes, I’m pretty random. That’s an obvious. But I do actually have a point here. I promise.

Here we go. This is actually very serious.

Remember the “Why I Write” post back a few? I had my greatest dream for all to know, to see, to remember. Every writer should have this dream. It’s the most important dream. In fact, it’s the only dream. Getting published, starting a writing career, in all honesty, to me, is a goal. It’s an exciting goal to have. But supporting that goal happens to be the greatest dream alive for any writer. That is simply having the power to write something that someone will read and enjoy. And you don’t actually need to get published for that to happen. You’ve already accomplished your dream.

I bring this up to utterly silence, squash, annihilate, vaporize, destroy those mindless mannequins and dance on the graves of the peons and nosepickers (yeah, bring it, boys, bring your slander toward me, bring it) of an interesting company actually well known as none other than…

PUBLISHAMERICA.

They take your dream and turn it into something trivial. It’s like taking a normal-looking girl and painting her face with way too much makeup. They juice you up with lofty promises and praises for something you already get anyway, only dressed up in the form of a ‘book’. A ‘book’ that won’t sell. Because they don’t care to sell it. Their business is to take your money for something you can see. When I say ‘take your money’, I mean the copies end up being POD (Print On Demand). You order them, they print it, they ship it out. In essence, you’re paying for your own book. A book with an adequately done cover on it. Big deal.

That’s like a priest taking money for showing you a pretzel in the shape of Jesus’s face and then calling it a sign from God that salty bread will cure cancer.

Worse, they disguise their tactics in the form of traditional publishing. Traditional publishing that’s designed to establish CAREERS. A book that doesn’t sell ultimately has no CAREER. There’s no future in a book that doesn’t SELL. And if they don’t care to put any effort to actually SELL the book to anyone other than friends, family or coworkers, meaning to actually SELL to actual STRANGERS in the WORLD….

I just can’t say anymore. Bottom line–no lasting career as an author exists when your reader base happens to be twenty or thirty people. Bottom line–if you do, however, want something for yourself, you can’t even begin to imagine how easy it is to produce your own copies for only a small investment these days. Search the internet. Stuff like that exists. I’m not even kidding. You don’t need to send off your prized possession to the salt lickers at PA (PublishAmerica) for something you can achieve yourself if you so desire.

This is why it’s important to remember your real dream. You don’t need an actual ‘book’ in your hand to realize your dream. You’ve already accomplished your dream. If you want a book in your hand, awesome. It’ll virtually take pennies to create one yourself on the internet. But don’t sell it off to someone who will butter you up into believing that it can be a ‘career’. That ‘dream’ of being a published author…. Remember the real dream, for Christ’s sake. Publication is a goal. The dream is the writing. When you finish that manuscript, you are a WRITER. You’ve authored a book. Pure and simple. You can’t even imagine how many people in the world actually DREAM of accomplishing that. Publication is a mere goal, and a good one. But it doesn’t make you less of a writer at all if you have never been published. Remember that. Keep in mind that, as long as you keep at your craft, no matter how long it takes, I firmly believe, without any ounce of doubt in my diet, someone out there will notice; and them noticing will get you that much closer to your goal. And, for sure, it’ll make your dream that much more real.

Hence, this is why I now dub PA (known currently as PublishAmerica) as…

PURPLE ACORNS.

Because purple acorns are silly. They don’t exist. They’re nothing. Purple acorns are the same as pigs in the sky. They’ll never happen. I look at a purple acorn and laugh. Because they’re just silly! Let’s laugh together, people. Laugh! Guffaw! Spit milk out your nose….

Purple acorns…. HA!