Blogger KRISTI HOLL is the author of 42 books, including MORE WRITER'S FIRST AID.

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Ageless Wisdom

August 13, 2010

At a recent retreat, several writer friends were waxing nostalgic, longing for the “good old days” of publishing.

Back then it was easier to get published. Back then it was common to have editorial attention and hand-holding. If only we could go back, they lamented.

Well, recently I had a rare chance to time travel back to the “good old days” and see what a writer’s life was like 54 years ago . . .

Writing Circa 1950’s

While sorting donated books and magazines for a library book sale, I came across a real treasure: a 1956 Writer’s Digest. Priced at 35 cents, it was a far cry from the large glossy print magazine or colorful web site of today.

I wondered if any writers in 1956 had envisioned the e-zines and e-publishing of today, the huge publishing conglomerates, writing with computers, or the differences in pay scales. (I found references to one-tenth-cent, quarter-cent, and half-cent-per-word rates!) The rates might sound puny, but a quick glance through the market listings showed that most magazines still paid on acceptance.

Ahhh, I thought, another world. I was eager to read the articles next, to see what “wisdom of the ages” was dispensed for such a different writing world.

The more things change…

As I thumbed through the yellowed magazine pages, however, I was surprised by a number of things. First were the numerous ads for co-operative publishing and subsidy publishing (or vanity presses). For some reason, I had assumed they were a plague of the ‘90’s and early 21st Century writing world, an answer for the age we lived in where it was so difficult to sell a manuscript to a “big name” publisher or even a small press.

My second surprise was a full-page ad on the back of the magazine for a bookdoctor, something else I had believed to be the result of present market realities.The ad read: “Sure, you’re going to be an author. But right now you are having ahard time making folks believe it! Friends and neighbors regard your literary ambitions with a quiet smile, but members of the family are less subtle. Not only are you getting no help from them—you aren’t even being encouraged. One day you’ll show ‘em. But what can you show until you have a published book? And how can a book become publishable in today’s selective market without professional counsel?”

Sound familiar? Every word of this book doctor’s ad is just as true in 2010 as it was in 1956!

A Writer’s Life in the Good Old Days

My biggest surprises came in an article called “Roses and Thorns” by Jim Kjelgaard (a juvenile writer). He reflected on his 25 years of writing, which had begun in the early depression years. It would be hard to find a writer whose experiences were further removed from mine than someone who began writing after the crash on Wall Street. Or would it?

I was shocked to find out how much we had in common. For example, Jim’s thoughts on writing only when inspiration strikes sounded identical to the advice I gave a new writer last month. He wrote of “the grueling discipline, the long hours spent over their typewriters” that was required. He called writing “an exacting job that often requires many more hours of hard work than most jobs. . . All the successful writers I know are successful mainly because they work hard,” not because they only wrote when inspired. Not any different today.

Don’t waste your time looking back to the “good old days.” Each period has its challenges, its ups and its downs. The best time to be a writer is always today. So…go write!

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Ageless Wisdom (Part 2)

June 20, 2008

(First read Ageless Wisdom–Part 1)

We hear endlessly about how much easier it was to get published and make a living as a writer years ago. Is that a misconception too? Jim wrote, “Were I starting over, I’d know that, before I could hope to earn a living writing, I’d have to serve a long apprenticeship.” Even so, it was simpler then, right? There were quiet, well behaved “Leave It to Beaver” families that made writing so much easier. Maybe. Maybe not. Jim’s experience sounded very familiar: “I would set aside some time each day for writing and adhere rigorously to my schedule,” he said. “I’d make sure of privacy; I’d go into the garage, a shed, or out under a tree. When I decided that writing was the only career that would ever satisfy me, I was working full time in a factory. But I allotted two hours every night for writing.”

Hmmm. Those “good old days” don’t sound much different than the present days. Of course, the “odds of making it as a writer” were certainly much better back then. Writers in the ‘50’s weren’t discouraged (like we are today) by being warned that only 5% of the authors in America make a living at writing. Or were they? Kjelgaard wrote that if he had it to do all over again, “I would not fear competition as such. The very loose statement that there are millions of aspiring writers in the United States means merely that there are millions who write an hour a week, an hour a month, or even an hour a year. But only a very few work hard enough to become professionals.” I would venture to say that it’s just as true today.

One Shocking Difference
By and large, the advice in that 1956 Writer’ Digest is just as applicable today as it was then. I think we can stop harking back to the good old days.

Not everything was the same in 1956 however. In “letters to the editor,” I found a lengthy apology. A magazine had folded without paying for all the articles it had accepted. The editor (who had quit) apologized profusely to writers who were cheated out of their money and offered to do whatever he could to help them collect! Oh, and the name of the magazine that cheated the writers? Honest to Pete, it was called Frauds & Rackets!

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