I've done that, letting go at 27 books, acknowledging that some books would take too much of whatever time I have left, so I boxed up all the research materials for them so that Special Collections at Michigan State's library could add them to The Lev Raphael Papers.
All I want now is just to get attention enough so that more people will subscribe to my Substacks so that I can earn a living (if minimum) wage writing here.
How many subscribers would that be? Back when I was doing lots of paid speaking gigs, it turned out that my honorariums were always many many times what I would have earned via book sales at book store events or conferences, so I eased out of the latter.
Mine were un-agented, always by my own PR work, with sometimes help from a publisher, but like with my 19th book My Germany, I did 50+ gigs here, in Canada, and across Germany and it was basically my PR campaign that got me the gigs and made me more money than I could have made selling copies of the book.
I’m afraid that this tendency is not limited to writers or even Americans. It’s a prominent feature of being human; we are simply never satisfied. I think that cultivating a sense of inner peace and engaging in self reflection can go a long way towards correcting this.
I think there are distinct cultural differences. When I was studying Sweden and Swedish, thinking I would be teaching there, I learned about their concept of lagom: having just enough. That's so alien to our culture.
I found that I'm a better writer now than I was five years ago, and back then I could say the same thing going back in increments of five or ten years to college. Though some books break that progression.
I agree with this. Growth as a writer or in any form of art is important. Without that, the work, whatever it is, wouldn't be worth it. I couldn't stand working in something where I couldn't grow and learn and get better.
That’s one of the best things about being a writer: we can get better. It’s not like being a ballet dancer or an athlete when they get to a certain point where the body can’t do what it used to.
There is danger in success. As a writer, I consider myself better, not as good as, but better than my peers. The only thing they have is publication. Therefor, if I am published (yes! success!) and not acknowledged as better than my peers, this would be devastating.
I think that comparing ourselves to other writers, to our peers, can be undermining of self-esteem. It’s hard to worry in the culture like ours, and it takes work.
Thanks Lev. We may not want to compare ourselves, but others will. Pretending something's not there works, but only for awhile. Believe me I've tried : )
Other people are afraid to do what they want. My point was about shame and invidious comparisons that we can work to avoid doing ourselves I don’t think it makes us better writers.
What I want is to live long enough to write everything I want to write.
I've done that, letting go at 27 books, acknowledging that some books would take too much of whatever time I have left, so I boxed up all the research materials for them so that Special Collections at Michigan State's library could add them to The Lev Raphael Papers.
Yes yes yes
All I want is to make enough money selling my books so I can pay my house cleaner.
I ended up with many things I never thought of wanting....like four German book tours. So goes a career. :-)
All I want now is just to get attention enough so that more people will subscribe to my Substacks so that I can earn a living (if minimum) wage writing here.
How many subscribers would that be? Back when I was doing lots of paid speaking gigs, it turned out that my honorariums were always many many times what I would have earned via book sales at book store events or conferences, so I eased out of the latter.
That's nice. I need to get into doing more of those. I don't have an agent but I'm trying to find one.
Mine were un-agented, always by my own PR work, with sometimes help from a publisher, but like with my 19th book My Germany, I did 50+ gigs here, in Canada, and across Germany and it was basically my PR campaign that got me the gigs and made me more money than I could have made selling copies of the book.
Mama was right!
She was very wise, and inspiring.
True true true..
I'd like to live long enough to enjoy living long enough. :-)
I’m afraid that this tendency is not limited to writers or even Americans. It’s a prominent feature of being human; we are simply never satisfied. I think that cultivating a sense of inner peace and engaging in self reflection can go a long way towards correcting this.
I think there are distinct cultural differences. When I was studying Sweden and Swedish, thinking I would be teaching there, I learned about their concept of lagom: having just enough. That's so alien to our culture.
I want to write a book that comes out as good as what is in my head.
That seems sensible.
And so far it's impossible.
I found that I'm a better writer now than I was five years ago, and back then I could say the same thing going back in increments of five or ten years to college. Though some books break that progression.
I agree with this. Growth as a writer or in any form of art is important. Without that, the work, whatever it is, wouldn't be worth it. I couldn't stand working in something where I couldn't grow and learn and get better.
That’s one of the best things about being a writer: we can get better. It’s not like being a ballet dancer or an athlete when they get to a certain point where the body can’t do what it used to.
There is danger in success. As a writer, I consider myself better, not as good as, but better than my peers. The only thing they have is publication. Therefor, if I am published (yes! success!) and not acknowledged as better than my peers, this would be devastating.
I think that comparing ourselves to other writers, to our peers, can be undermining of self-esteem. It’s hard to worry in the culture like ours, and it takes work.
Thanks Lev. We may not want to compare ourselves, but others will. Pretending something's not there works, but only for awhile. Believe me I've tried : )
Other people are afraid to do what they want. My point was about shame and invidious comparisons that we can work to avoid doing ourselves I don’t think it makes us better writers.
“There’s no such thing as ‘enough’ in America.”
Which is why so many people there don't recognize it when someone uses it, in any way, in a sentence...