The Odds

Writing is hot. The whole world seems to be doing it. And even though, relatively speaking, only a small percentage of these aspiring writers actually takes a leap of faith, and sends their work to a publishing house, the sheer number of those unsolicited manuscripts is huge. To illustrate this, here are some cold hard facts from the average-sized literary publishing house I work for.

In 2009 we received well over 260 unsolicited manuscripts by post. Over the last 10 years more than 1.900 were registered. But from this enormous pile, during the last 6 years, I’ve seen only 3 writers emerge to see their first book published. This realization does nothing for your motivation. Why even bother to try, when the odds are so staggeringly small?

For a long time, this thought alone was enough to keep me, pen in hand frozen in mid-air, from actually starting to write. And then there was also the fact that being surrounded by talented and published writers on a daily basis, including some of the really great one’s, tends to make you feel very small. The obvious contrast is way too much for a budding writer. Who am I to think that I’d have anything to add to this already crowded literary world?

These unsettling thoughts have kept me from taking my writing serious for a very long time. Until I realized I could just let the thoughts be what they were, and get on with it. I need to write, despite these odds, despite the writers. And so now I am fully focussed on my goal: finding my way to becoming the best writer I can possibly be.