Here's another seamy little underbelly that's become more and more apparent as I have been researching: it appears that there's a lot of writer-on-writer nastiness.
I don't get it, personally. I hope that every writer, whether it's an independent or a big-time name, is successful and sells lots of books and has lots of readers and reaches out to millions of people. Every single one of them!
Because for me, my competitors aren't other authors. Whenever somebody reads a book and enjoys it, it makes them want to read another book. And you know who has another book out there? This guy! So every time an author sells a book to a reader, and then they go push it on their friends and create more readers, that means I have another potential sale to make.
So I'm not worried about other authors.
I'm worried about TV, which is always lurking out there as the bastion of least effort, ready to dull the mind with hours and hours of brain-numbing programming centered around fart jokes and sleazy cop lawyers who have affairs with plastic surgeons while chasing dragon-riding vampires (judging from my brief survey of the TV guide).
Don't get me wrong - I watch TV, and am partial to game shows, and I know that they take a lot of effort to write and produce and act in - I just think that's the author's competitor. Almost nobody ever watched an episode of She's the Sheriff and then said to themselves "I want to read a book!"
For me, TV is the writer's competitor. Not so much movies, which often come from books, and are discrete events. But TV, that comes in neat serialized packages that can eat up hours at a time with a bazillion different flavors - that's the competitor.
I hope all other authors are successful in their endeavors. I mean, I hope they mention me, too, and get me readers; I'm not a saint, here. But I wish them well, not ill.
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