https://booksquare.com/in-which-we-advocate-heavy-drinking/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&%23038;utm_campaign=in-which-we-advocate-heavy-drinking Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism Sat, 30 Apr 2005 21:55:55 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://booksquare.com/in-which-we-advocate-heavy-drinking/#comment-68876 Sat, 30 Apr 2005 21:55:55 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2005/04/29/1287/#comment-68876 Oh crap. Of course it had to be chiropractor.

]]> https://booksquare.com/in-which-we-advocate-heavy-drinking/#comment-68868 Sat, 30 Apr 2005 21:26:59 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2005/04/29/1287/#comment-68868 Oops, sorry, no. I misspelled it, too. But that’s okay. I won’t tell anyone. I knew that shunning spellcheck would be a problem one day. Life’s sometimes too short to worry about putting all the letters in the right place.

]]> https://booksquare.com/in-which-we-advocate-heavy-drinking/#comment-68864 Sat, 30 Apr 2005 20:55:57 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2005/04/29/1287/#comment-68864 OK, so this means I spelled ‘chiropracter’ right? Because you have no idea what a duh-me day I’m having. I kept sitting here going, “Chiropracter?” “Chiropractor?” “Chiro-?” Then I just decided, oh, hell, the damn dictionary’s two floors down in the basement, so just post and hope.

]]> https://booksquare.com/in-which-we-advocate-heavy-drinking/#comment-68804 Sat, 30 Apr 2005 16:35:16 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2005/04/29/1287/#comment-68804 I like that line — being a novelist isn’t the same as being a chiropracter. It’s so hard to imagine that the first novel isn’t the beginning of bigger and better things. Writing is like any other job in some ways, including the lack of lifetime security.

]]> https://booksquare.com/in-which-we-advocate-heavy-drinking/#comment-68751 Sat, 30 Apr 2005 12:54:04 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2005/04/29/1287/#comment-68751 I remember reading an interview with T.C. Boyle once where what he basically said was: When you’re offered your first book contract, don’t run out and buy the big house! I took this advice to heart. Far too often I hear stories of writers who, having sold a book, assume each contract will match or increase on the first contract, as if being a novelist were the same as being a chiropracter; writers who receive 250K, 500K, even $1 mil advances and wind up broke in no time, because they assume they’ll be riding this train forever. Yes, several months after my first book pubbed, I bought a new car – not a house! – but it was a fairly modest car and I only bought it because my drunken mechanic said there was no longer enough glue and rubber bands in the world to hold together my 20-year-old Peugeot. I’m sure the way I live wouldn’t be for everybody – I can hear some saying, “But I want that big house!” – but I have only two goals: 1) I want to keep writing for a living, 2) I want to be able to pay for it when it comes time for my five-year-old to go to college. If I’m just a little bit careful, and very lucky, maybe I’ll get to do both.

]]> https://booksquare.com/in-which-we-advocate-heavy-drinking/#comment-68462 Fri, 29 Apr 2005 21:39:46 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2005/04/29/1287/#comment-68462 Yes, but that would have required the creation of a new category, and laziness is clearly more of a virtue than a big advance. Hmm, I may need to check my reference materials to make sure that quote’s right.

]]> https://booksquare.com/in-which-we-advocate-heavy-drinking/#comment-68460 Fri, 29 Apr 2005 21:26:52 +0000 http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2005/04/29/1287/#comment-68460 Wow. Does this go under the cautionary heading of, “Be careful what you wish for?”

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