“Being published” is the holy grail for people who think they can write. It’s the goal set before us to let us know we’ve arrived.
I was published pretty early on. That was mostly because I knew people through my family. I have been published in over 100 articles at this point.
This isn’t much considering this has been over 16 years of “writing.” Add in the fact that about 15 of those articles were published by places I had no connection to.
All that being said, I have been published and it’s not as fulfilling as one would think. Here are my top disappointments with being published.
* It never pays nearly what I think it should.
* Most of the time your rights to your material are gone.
* There are times when editors pretty much rewrite the whole thing, making your used to be masculine sounding article read like a third-grade girl’s book report.
* It is very rare that you ever hear feedback from your readers.
* It takes a long time before your list of past publishing credits add up to anything that does not inspire a tinge of embarrassment.
* Once you get published, you just have to start the whole process all over again.
