20 year old NEET here. Depressed, nihilistic and suicidal.
When I was a child, it was my dream to become a famous author.
I was a talented writer for most of my time at school.
English was my best subject and I was usually top of the class in it without even trying.
Should I become an author? Do you think it's possible I could do it to make money?
Unless you have serious connections in academia and/or publishing industry, no, it's not possible. Unless you're a woman, then it might be, but it's still lottery odds.
>>28440937
But John Green literally took a shit on to a piece of paper and got rich from it.
Or did he have connections maybe?
>>28440886
just sell your body
when i was a child i wanted to drive a digger
I am an author. No, I won't link my work, I don't want robots knowing who I am.
Do you have any work for us to sample? Just something small, nothing that will be plagiarized of coursr.
>>28440946
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Green_%28author%29#Early_life_and_career
Do you have all that, and everything it implies when you read between the lines?
>>28440996
I have nothing. I'm a worthless loser right now.
If I was going to set my sights on doing this it would definitely take some time for me to get good again.
you should write something regardles of wether you become an author or not you'll feel better about yourself. that been said the chances of you ever making a living out of writing are tiny. Only the top 1% ever achieve that
Authorfag here.
>>28441025
See
>>28441032
You never know until you try.
>>28440886
23 year old NEET here, you are basically me but timeshifted back 3 years. Here's some shit you need to know:
1) Writing a novel is really, really fucking different from short stories. Much moreso than you'd ever think possible too.
2) Don't listen to this >>28440937 fucking retard, literary agents and publishers only give a shit about whether or not your shit is good enough to make money with, though obviously connections would help.
3) That being said, making a real living from writing is extremely difficult. You won't get paid very much unless you're incredibly popular. It's also near-unheard of for people below their late 20's to get anywhere, before you say "Paolini", his parents were literally publishers and he got lucky.
4) Overall, it's pretty much a pipe dream. You'd honestly have a much better chance making it as an indie game dev than a writer in the modern day, and that in itself is obviously not easy.
Its basically down to you. I just write as something of a backup plan, I don't really expect it to go anywhere but it gives my NEET live a little focus.
t. Unpublished guy who's done a lot of research
>>28440937
if he's smart enough to be a decent author he's smart enough to find connections with a publisher.
look at any bestseller right now, it's complete trash, man. good writers don't work by writing books anymore. if its this fuccbois dream to write books, it's a far less competitive field than tech or science. it's not going to make a lot of money but there's a lot you could do with the experience.
>>28441051
>if he's smart enough to be a decent author he's smart enough to find connections with a publisher.
Oh wow. Yeah, everyone's stupid, that's the problem.
Have you ever actually looked into the issue or are you just a starry eyed highschooler?
>>28440886
what is your birthday
originalls
>>28441079
What difference does that make?
It's in May.
When I was young there was this experimental "creative writing" portion of english class everyone had to do before the actual class began and for some reason our teacher really liked my story and used to read it out to the class.
It was about two Paranormal Investigators tracking down a strange man wearing a bird mask, he disappeared in a child's playground in a rough neighbourhood and it turned out there was a portal there underneath one of the pyramid shaped canopy of the jungle gym. When they go through it they find themselves in ancient egypt and ally themselves with one of the pharoah's wives, who in exchange for information about the future gives them technology they try to use to make a time machine. Eventually there's a government agency kind of like time cops that shows up and aliens that think the time travelers are trying to steal the secret of the pyramids turn up and there's a big war which is what destroys Egyptian civilization. I was 8 or something when I wrote it.
She asked me to type out the entire thing and when I finished she said she would send it off to a friend of hers who worked at a publisher and liked the sound of my story.
But then she went into hospital for a kidney disease and I moved to the other side of the continent so I don't think anything happened with it.
There's probably an alternate universe where I'm a famous 8 year old author.
>>28441048
This.
I write for fun, and I didn't expect my Novel to sell well, but it had a decent run.
You write because you want to, not because you have to.
>>28440886
Hmmm. You've already ticked one thing off the list. The only other things I need to know are if you are intelligent and if you have a sense of humor.
>>28441092
Nevermind, I thought you were someone else
Look up a thread called:
>Guys: Kindle Is The Ticket
on BHW
Some good info on there about self-publishing and Amazon. People in the thread making tens of thousands every month.
>>28441025
Same spot, famalama. Been working on somesci-fistuff lately, and doing a lot of transfers from notebook to my PC. Mostly just notes and world-building, but it's getting me back into it.
I'd try the same if I were you. We've all gotthatnotebook. Time to start the move, OP.
I'm convinced that you should only become an author if you have something to say. You need a lot of experience with life to be an author.
>>28441072
what are you projecting for? im saying that it's not complicated at all to network with people in the industry. if you're only competent enough to put words on a page then write for any number of online clickbait sites. also go fuck yourself kiddo.
>>28441107
I've been told many, many times throughout my life that I'm intelligent but I've never believed it.
My sense of humour is pretty fucked from browsing imageboards for so long. I don't laugh at any normalfag shit anymore.
>>28441149
>experience with life
You mean slaving away for some filthy Jew for 30 years makes you a better author?
That's what life is m80.
>>28440886
>Should I become an author? Do you think it's possible I could do it to make money?
Publishing is a dying industry. You have almost zero shot. It's pretty much a meme at this point.
>>28440886
No, don't even try. You probably are a lot worse than you think. Figure something else out, try to find a trade.
>>28441159
Pretty sure OP said "famous author", not "disposable content mill worker", if you want to be that, all you really need is an English/Literature/Communications/Gender Studies degree and you're set.
Oh and a vag.
>>28441187
And a time machine.
>>28441183
>>28441185
Well this is definitely still my opinion.
>Figure something else out, try to find a trade.
I'd rather just lay down and rot if I can't spend my life doing something I enjoy.
>>28441187
and if you can be an author you can make a few phone calls and go to a few meetings/conventions. are you drunk or something?
>>28441170
I'm not gonna let you destroy the world
>>28441202
I meant for the latter.
>>28441214
If it was in my power to do so, I would do it.
You can't prevent shit.
>>28441213
Yeah. There's that famous story about Stephen King, who hasn't won a Hugo since 1982, so he asked his friend who was on some committees and such, and he explained to him that the Hugo Awards work in such a way that you have to be in the committee one year, then the other year you promote someone else's books, then you have to go to these gatherings and write these articles, and so on, and invited him to be in a committee, to which King said fuck this shit.
(this was when King was already the most famous writer in the world, and way past the point that awards and publishing deals were about the quality of the books)
For the kind of work that you have to do to be "an author", you might as well just buy the content of the book for a few hundred bucks from an Indian content mill worker, and then just do the "work of an author" with that as your book.
>>28441205
>I'd rather just lay down and rot if I can't spend my life doing something I enjoy.
Settle down edgelord.
You can thank people like yourselves on sites like this one that have made publishing anachronistic.
But you know that.
What you really want is adulation.
Do you guys think it's edgy to be a nihilist? Personally, I think it seems a very logical philosophy.
>>28441269
Everybody wants adulation.
>>28441271
I agree but I'm still a pretty edgy person in general.
>>28440886
>>28441048
29 year old NEET here, you are basically me but timeshifted 9 years back.
You'll eventually give up, do pathetic jobs just to stay alive and unironically consider becoming a thief
>>28441271
*teleports behind you*
haha too late kid
*silently snaps your neck*
where's your god now
>>28441302
Nope. Not everyone wants adulation. And people who chase fame usually wind up failures.
>>28441265
it's really awkward when you use the same metaphor twice in a row. do you even know what a mill worker does?
>>28441101
Something similar happened to me. When I wrote the last exam of the year in Germany (I forgot the name, I was like 9 or something) it was so good my teacher had to go through some shit to reassure the guys marking it (the exams are controlled by teachers from other schools afaik) that I didn't cheat. Then she sent it to a friend of hers who worked in the publishing industry. This was some 50 year old bitch and I remember I'd never seen her that enthusiastic about anything so she must have been quite impressed.
Unfortunately 2 weeks later I was dragged out of the country in a hush-hush operation (long story). I wonder if she ever tried to track me down.
>tfw you had so many shots at greatness in early life and they were taken from you through no fault of your own
>>28441311
Yeah I've seen NHK and I know how this all ends.
I guess I just wanted to fantasise a bit.
Suicide is starting to look a lot more realistic nowadays.
I really do hope I'm brave enough for it some day.
>>28441341
I disagree.
Landlord here. One of my tenants is an author. She has published several novels.
She makes under 20k a year. Her husband pays all the bills.
In 2016 publishing is more of an exercise in vanity than a legitimate vocation.
>>28441407
What if I put my soul into it?
I care about artistic expression through the written works.
>>28441170
Experience with life =/= stable employment.
I'd say it's the opposite of stable employment.
>Tolstoy wrote about his experiences being on of the Russian nobility
>Orwell wrote about his experience of shooting elephants in the eye
>Junger wrote about his experience fighting the Frog
>Mishima wrote about his experience being a fucking faggot
>so on and so forth
What are you going to write about?
>>28441379
>Yeah I've seen NHK
I actually didn't. Not sure if I should watch that because the description already reminds me of myself too much
Sell your soul, become a youtuber. Use the digital age. Get all those nerdy bitches.
>>28441426
Dude. 'Soul' or not, it's simply not a legitimate profession anymore.
>>28441427
Funny how all of them had a stable income and didn't have to worry about making ends meet though.
>>28441427
>>28441427
Pure fiction.
I fucking hate the real world.
>>28441454
Yeah.
>>28441446
I have no charisma but sometimes I fantasise about doing that.
>>28441426
You still will not succeed. You can be happy doing something else. Find something else you like and put your soul into that instead. Game programming, animation, coding... there are plenty of things you can practice outside of the workplace.
>>28441459
What's funny about it? Publishing in 2016 is hitting the 'Post' button.
>>28441480
Could I just write story scripts for games?:^)
>>28441459
I don't know about that. Orwell had some rough patches in life income-wise, and made a book out of that. I suppose there are different ways to make ends meet, not all of them equally wagecuck-y. Russian writer Gilyarovsky (that no one has heard about outside of Russia, but he is pretty cool) worked as a docker, circus actor, horse shepherd in the Steppe and worked with lead in a sweatshop that pretty much kills you after several months, all of that before becoming a writer, a successful one at that, exactly because he has seen so much.
>>28441311
>tfw no thief best friend to travel world with pulling off grand heists
>>28441514
>Raised by his well-educated mother (who died when he was 8) and his aristocratic stepmother
Stopped reading there, just a tourist.
>>28441542
Well yeah getting a chance to get basic education was a big deal in 19s century so yeah. Not today.
There are enough decent writers with genuinely working class or petty bourgeoisie background. Take Celine, being r9k tier pauper was literally his central subject.
>>28440886
28yo mangaka here.
>learned to draw at 20
>published gag manga at 26
It sold like shit but at least it's something, I wasn't aiming to live by my hobby anyway.
you should always give it a try man
