Ocean of Writers

Ocean of Writers

(How I see the overall Writer's Market today - Sept. 11, 2011)

by Don Ford

Today I feel like a writer adrift on a huge expanse of water, clinging to my small pieces of wood as poems or other stories.  I see no one around me; no one to guide me, and I fear I’ll drown.  No one is another’s man’s neighbor, but all are alone with their works; so tightly clinging to them.  Should a new writer be afraid?Remember there will always be sharks out there.

The huge market place has grown since every writer of lines think they need to be heard though it may or may not be well developed.  Every new agency of late is grabbing for a bit of their own actual handful of cash.  But as more writers hit the waters in front of them, each will try and net what they can.

When the computer opened this door, it was like a flood where much water did already abound.  Like little floating and bobbing heads, new writers head out into this deep.  All have come with a different bait, and all are fishing for a publishing contract, that use to not exist for many who were new to the field of writing.  As the market began to shrink with publishing houses clinging as well, but to their older tried, true, and ‘safer’ writer friends, that most already knew, newbies took to these e-book open waters in a feeding frenzy.

Why would a publishing house want to take on a newbie?  Certain well-known writers today can join any market they want.  They have become the bigger fish in this same ocean. Some of those same writers, King and the like, have decided to also flood the market in that new area of e-book publishing, (the little publishing pools) knowing they would be readily accepted.  Again we see the problem raising its ugly head.  The little guy starting out will once again be ignored while those bigger fish swallow up even those little market venues.

Somehow writers of every skill level will survive as long as they are patient and continue to cling to that small piece of their life, that familiar piece of wood that keeps them afloat; their works.  It is still a great big ocean out there and no one can be in all places at once,  which still leaves a bit of an open door for the little guy who is willing to market his head off in an attempt to become one of the bigger fish of the sea.  Though for most - face it, it isn’t ever going to happen.  But we will all keep plugging away anyway! Cheers!

Where eagles fly,

Don Ford (Greywolf)