Sarah J. Carlson

Contemporary Young Adult Author

Non-writers just don’t understand: My (not so) favorite question

12

are you publishedGranted, it is much easier to get published now with self-publishing, but still a ridiculous quantity of work, even after you finish and repeatedly re-work that novel.

Writer friends, do you have a (not so) favorite follow-up question you get after telling people you’re a writer?

12 thoughts on “Non-writers just don’t understand: My (not so) favorite question

  1. Charles Colp's avatarCharles Colp

    Yes, I get this all the time as well. I hate it because I can predict the next few sentences perfectly now. “No, I created my own publishing group and will be publishing under that.” “oh that sounds like a lot of work” (crickets) They never ever reply after that. I think I have had that conversation 10 times in the last 3 weeks. They don’t get it and that is fine, but when they ask a question you expect at least a little more interest.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. fndakfbdskbfdsjk's avatarflynnelizabeth5

    Lol love the picture! I totally agree. Another pet peeve of mine is when you say you’re a writer, and people come back with some variation of “Aw, that’s a cute hobby”… 😛

    Liked by 1 person

  3. permashift's avatarS. R. Carrillo

    “What do you write about?”
    *after jumping through mental anguish hoops* “Queer shit.”

    -or-

    “What’s your book about?”
    “A gay angel.”

    Like

    1. sjcarlson's avatarsjoycarlson Post author

      Yeah I hate trying to explain what my stuff’s about. Even though I have all these twitter pitches, I still can’t always coherently talk about it. But your response gets right to the point 😀

      Like

      1. permashift's avatarS. R. Carrillo

        The only way to get over the nervousness of being asked that question is to TOTALLY OWN the answer. So I do. I’ve had long enough of squirming under them both.

        Liked by 1 person

  4. Jon Chaisson's avatarJon Chaisson

    “Are you gonna put me in your book?”

    I don’t mind a bit of Tuckerization–I realized I could use a lot of my coworkers’ last names as street names and get away with it–but as a real character? Yeah, probably not gonna happen. 😉

    Like

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