The whiniest writer -- excuse me, author -- of all time.

I saw that too, Betsy.

If the article is written in a similar style to her books? I can see why they don't sell well. Too many gewgaws and frills, too little actually said, and I hate that she spent a third of a three-page article saying, basically, "This is what I am going to talk about."

Honey, many, many great writers had a day job. There is no law saying that a great book will be a profitable book. Your agent is right. Suck it up and deal.

playing world's tiniest violin for this person.

Huh.

I was more than a little sympathetic towards her. I'm a little shocked at the pile-on here.

My anger is at the sense of entitlement -- she appears to feel that she has a right not only to write great books but to earn a living wage from them. Hundreds of great writers haven't. She talks about earning a day job the way that Alice Adams does -- as the ultimate degradation. And she says she can't write without the dream of making the New York Times bestseller list.

Don't get me wrong, I have that fantasy, too. But it isn't why I write, and I don't expect it as my due.

You see it as a pile-on, Plei? It's three people, and as far as we know she isn't reading this board.

I probably would have been more sympathetic towards her if her writing style hadn't bugged me so much.

I totally got something completely different from that.

What I took away was that someone who had, for a short period of time, seen the potential to actually do what she loved as a job, rather than to continue to work doing something that she wasn't especially happy or comfortable doing, only to see the potential give way to harsh reality *despite* relatively good reviews. Not only that, but to see herself losing the potential to be published, period. Not just the potential to be a NYT best seller.

You see it as a pile-on, Plei? It's three people, and as far as we know she isn't reading this board.

I guess my schadenfreude is broken today.

only to see the potential give way to harsh reality *despite* relatively good reviews.

But every serious writer I've talked to, every book on writing I've ever read, says in large capital letters that publishing is a crapshoot. Books that deserve to get noticed don't. Books that don't deserve attention hit the best-seller list. It isn't about virtue, it's about luck.