In the end, the only useful lesson was a simple one: As a writer, I have to accept the lack of control. Publishing a book is like having a child. You can do everything right — feed him, clothe him, show him Baby Kierkegaard videos — but a bully at kindergarten can still make him eat clumps of dirt. You have to come to terms with that. And you have to appreciate that your child is able to run around the playground at all, and is even having fun on the jungle gym when not being pummeled. Oh, and you can make sure the Amazon ranking for the bully’s new book is much, much lower than yours. Which it is.
For those who haven’t been paying attention, the category “Quote of the Week” is somewhat of a misnomer. This appellation is a carryover from our days in the dorm where we used to post something clever on our little message board on our door (yeah, we were blogging before the concept was inven–okay, probably not). The first quote was from the Dead Kennedys. Since then, Quote of the Week has become our sole responsibility in our peer group. Nobody else is allowed to post a Quote without our permission. Downside, sometimes we go years without quotes. Upside, we get to make the rules. Like we can have as many Quotes per week as we desire. If not more.
