Want to write? Don’t do it!
by Leonard H. Le Blanc III
I have been asked by other aspiring writers, since I am doing a lot of book reviews again for Expat Life in Thailand, how can they become a writer? I am immediately reminded what Daniel Craig (James Bond movies) just told other aspiring actors who want to become thespians: “Don’t do it!” He explained it is too hard, the humiliations and rejections are constant, the odds of becoming a success in the business are impossibly long. And this advice is coming from one of the most successful, widely admired, enormously talented actors of his generation. Give up yet? OK, you asked for it! Here we go with my (poor) advice.
Before I ever put pen to paper back in 1988, I was a U.S. Navy Minority Officer Recruiter in El Paso, Texas, USA. I invited one of the U.S.’s best selling authors to come down to speak. He agreed to come. His name was Captain Edward L. Beach, Jr., author of the Naval classic Run Silent, Run Deep later made into a popular movie. I asked him: “What does it take to become a writer?” He replied: “You need three things. First – know what person you are speaking in. Second – know your audience. Third – know your subject.”
There was an old saying in Hollywood: “For every face you see on the screen there are a 1,000 failures.” When I occasionally moonlighted as an extra in Hollywood, when I was still in U.S. Navy Recruiting in 1988-1991, the common wisdom was there were 110,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Of that only 3,000 made more than $10,000USD a year. So the competition to succeed was intensely fierce. I did an interview with the prolific, best selling author, Colin Cotterill for Expat Life in Thailand. We spoke about what it takes to become a writer. He said that C.S. Lewis got over 800 rejection slips before someone saw the charms of The Chronicles of Narnia. (My first novel, Air Base, got slightly less rejection slips from book agents and publishers.) Colin said he got very lucky in having his enormously popular murder mystery books reach a market that was eager to read them.
However, I also spoke with the Executive Senior Editor of the U.S. official military newspaper, The Stars and Stripes, Bob Reid, about writing. He explained it is all ‘rigged’. Publishing is all an insider’s game, closed to outsiders looking to break in be a successful writer. He said that a publisher will take a bad book from a famous author over a great book from an unknown author. This is definitely true, looking at some of the mangy, flea bitten, moth eaten works I have seen from some well known authors. Towards the end of his life, Mario Puzo (The Godfather) put out several critically panned books. But because he was “Mario Puzo”, these books all sold like free hot cakes since his third book was an international blockbusting best seller. I have seen other local great writers in my time including Steve Rosse, William Peskett, Robin Westley Martin, Stephen Leather, Tom Crowley, Collin Piprell, and others here craft as good, or better, as anything the bestselling authors have on the market. The problem – lack of audience for whatever reason, not skill or talent.
How did I get my five books into print? The first two books I had printed out of my own pocket. I sold them to friends, family and anyone who would buy them. I made a modest profit. The next two books went out as eBooks on Amazon. But it was said that perhaps one million other writers were also putting their self-published books up on Amazon annually. Only a few of them broke out of the herd and went on to be best sellers. On my last book, The Perfect U.S. “Deep State Operation!” I had a U.S.-based Pay-to-Print publisher do it for me. They were not cheap, but they put out a good product and are trying to get publicity for it. Writing was the easy part, getting the book into mainstream media has been (next-to-nigh on) impossible, but I am still trying to catch the right eye. I am still trying.
What else? You will need talent, luck, perseverance, stamina and patience to succeed as a writer. There are no guarantees. It is just like running around the Sahara desert trying to get struck by lightning. It can happen, but not very often. Break a leg!
