I'm Set Up For Sales; All I Need Now is a Book

It happened again today.

I've written about this before. People who claim to be interested in writing, but who are more interested in the ancillary parts of being a writer than in actually writing.

Today, the wannabee was soliciting information on e-publishing, wanting to know how to "compile" an e-book and put it on a website for downloading. And, oh, by the way, the book isn't written yet.

I offered a website with a list of reputable e-publishers, but she came back again, asking about posting the e-book on her website because, of course, she wanted "to look at all options and decide which one is right."

My goodwill having already been tapped out, I told her she was getting ahead of herself. I suggested that she focus on writing the book before starting to decide on a marketing platform.

I didn't mean to be insensitive to her needs, but--after a while--it gets really old to be asked about finding an agent, finding an editor, finding someone to market film rights when the person doing the questioning hasn't written word one.

Lots of well-known writers have talked about this dynamic. Stephen King has spoken about it more than once during interviews. He is not friendly to wannabees who question him while acknowledging they have not yet written anything.

I'm sure every profession has a similar phenomenon. Actors who are too busy writing their Academy Award acceptance speech to bother going on auditions. Football players who are too busy deciding which professional team they want to play for to show up for high school practice. Stock brokers who are too busy bragging to their friends about their sales record to cold call new clients.

Anyway, I wish my friend from today lots of luck in marketing her soon-to-be-bestseller e-book.