Work is love made visible. –Kahlil Gibran
The right to bear children, like the right to write, creates the responsibility to do justice to one’s creation. Without parents as models, children will become burdens to themselves, the people in their lives, and society. The love, patience, compassion, knowledge, generosity, conscientiousness, selflessness, skills, sacrifice, pride, forbearance, discipline, determination, resourcefulness, creativity, courage, understanding, sense of humor, and spiritual beliefs needed to be a parent make it life’s hardest personal challenge.
Unless their books are irresistible to everyone who reads them, authors have to take the responsibility for the success of their books, or their babies will probably be among the 80% of published books that fail.
From the moment of conception, parenting, like writing, has to be a labor of love. Parenting requires spending two decades transforming children from being totally dependent into adults, capable of living and thinking independently. It’s a perpetual push-and-pull effect. You push them to be independent while pulling them back from challenges they’re not ready for.
The result of parent’s efforts should be adults who
- Live by the values with which they were raised
- Have a mature, ethical, emotional, and intellectual response to any situation
- Attract a mate with the same strengths, vision of life, and desire to be a parent
- Accept ambiguity and uncertainty, but are life-long learners with the potential to be a life-long earners in a rapidly changing culture
- Balance service and self-interest, personal and professional obligations, and the masculine and feminine aspects of their identity
- Fulfill the role of citizen and member of the community
Parents who bring up children like this create a legacy essential for sustaining the country. Nothing is more important for our future than parents’ labors of love.
Your book will be born twice: It may take you nine months to write it and your publisher nine months to publish it. You will do it faster and perhaps better, if you publish it yourself. You have to decide the best way to bring it into the world and achieve your goals for it. Doing whatever it takes to get your books written, published, and promoted as passionately and professionally as you is what it takes to become a successful author.
Someone once said of a writer that “After receiving numerous rejections, he decided to write for posterity.” Once you decide why you’re writing, you’ll be on your way to achieving your goals. Children embody the love with which their parents raise them. The most likely way for your book to become a source of pride and profit is if writing and promoting it are labors of love. If they are, your book will succeed.
The blog aspires to help us both understand writing and publishing. To make the blog as helpful as it can be, please respond with your questions and suggestions for changes. I hope you find it worth sharing.
Do one thing every day to make the world better . –John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hitman
The 10th San Francisco Writers Conference / A Celebration of Craft, Commerce & Community / February 14-17, 2013 / www.sfwriters.org / sfwriterscon@aol.com /
Keynoters: Bella Andre, Anne Perry, and R. L. Stine
http://sfwriters.info/blog /@SFWC/ www.facebook.com/SanFranciscoWritersConference
San Francisco Writers University / Where Writers Meet and You Learn
Laurie McLean, Dean/free classes/www.sfwritersu.com/sfwritersu@gmail.com/@SFWritersU
415-673-0939 / 1029 Jones Street / San Francisco, 94109
The 5th San Francisco Writing for Change Conference / Changing the World One Book at a Time
September 2013 / Unitarian Universalist Center / Geary and Franklin
www.sfwritingforchange.org / sfwriterscon@aol.com
Michael Larsen is a literary agent and consultant to nonfiction writers. He and his partner Elizabeth Pomada are co-directors of the San Francisco Writers Conference and the San Francisco Writing for Change Conference.
