Why Writers Have Trust Issues
A normally jolly and good-natured bunch, we
A normally jolly and good-natured bunch, we
Here in Nashville, I have had a song on hold for Jerry Garcia for thirty years, and I'm starting to feel like I'm getting the run-around when I call about it.
As a creator, we all learn to develop trust issues. They are usually our own fault.
Some stem from being promised publication with some confusion about timelines. This can be caused simply by wishful thinking on the part of publishers, or by extra work coming in or a number of other honest issues.
In earlier days, when I was a tenderfoot at writing and publishing, I admit I was taken to the literary laundry by a two-person team who was going to study through my books and help with editing/enhancements.
They were slick and I was not. They got a couple of hundred of my dollars in advance before their Houdini impersonation.
Another time, a large, popular hosting service helped level my wallet by a couple of thousand dollars over the course of a year, to build me a “killer” website, promising results that sounded great, while the people I was dealing with still worked at that company.
Now it has become a national pastime to market by stealth, to dupe or fool the unwary buyer into listening and ultimately buying something. I can no longer have my voicemail attended because of the sheer number of robocalls trying to sell me stuff.
And possibly the best of the best, may I present the faux e-courses.
E-courses can be great, or not. They usually contain a perfect amount of information in a format that is easy to consume and digest.
But, they can also seem good, and yet be built and offered by a different tenderfoot just out to make a buck.
Maybe its because such a large percentage of people want to be writers. They want to have that as their profession, and people are attracted to the demand for help. New writers sometimes think it's easy to be a writer, and it doesn't take long to start thinking a little help would be good.
Then BANG! It’s like the bogus roofers working a city after a bad storm, or some asphalt pavers who say their office is in the next state where they are certainly members of the BBB.
You see, sometimes the muse strikes us and the ideas start spewing up and out like a bad oyster dinner, and we can’t always stop and check to see that everything was as it appeared to be.
At that point, you go with the flow.
People should always do what they say they are going to do. But they don't.
That's especially hard on writers to have to try to stop those oysters and do something we didn't even think about when we ate.
Join Medium with my referral link - Don Martin
As a Medium member, a portion of your membership fee goes to writers you read, and you get full access to every story…medium.com