Why I Became a Writer…45 years ago
and other Stuff
By
Kathryn Meyer Griffith
Author
of 24 published novels, 2 novellas and 10 short stories since 1984
This post was originally written in
2011…
right before I discovered
self-publishing and then everything changed.
And a 2016 update is at the end of
the post.
Truthfully, what started me off as an author was
simply this: As a child, about eight or nine years old (the same time I began
to draw pictures in pencil and years before I began to dream about being a
singer with my younger brother Jim), I began reading books, science fiction,
historical romances and scary books from the library. I had six brothers and
sisters and though I had a loving mother and father, a loving family, there was
very little money. I can’t say we were poverty poor, but we were poor at times.
Sometimes our meals were scarce and we never had extra money for many toys or
outside entertainment. I think in my whole young childhood my father only took
us out to eat once. Try paying for seven kids and two adults. So we learned to
entertain ourselves. We played outside, climbed trees and hid in deep dirt
gullies. We sang, howled really, outside at night on the swing set.
I loved to read. The library books were free and
plentiful. I’d sit on my bed, especially during the long summer days and
evenings (after chores were done, of course) and read one amazing book after
another and if I was lucky, with a chocolate snack or cherry Kool-Aid nearby.
Those books, those words on the page, took me away to other places, times and
worlds. It was magical. I got lost in
people-on-a-spaceship-going–to-some-faraway-planet science fiction books. There
was this one horse book when I was a kid that knocked me out, made me cry, and
laugh with joy at the end it was so real to me and so full of pathos because I
loved horses so much. It was called Smoky. I loved that book. Sigh. I never
forgot how those wonderful books made me feel…so free. So adventurous. So rich. Like I could be or do anything
someday. And when I grew up I wanted to create that magic myself for
others. So…that’s why I began
writing. And when I get depressed over
my writing at times, I remember that.
I remember vividly one day at school, when I was
about 10 or so, when a big box of Weekly Reader books were delivered and we
each got to pick one to read. The smell of those new books in that box as I
looked at them, the excitement and awe of the other kids over the books and the
reverence for those authors, and I thought: Wouldn’t it be something if someday
a box of these books were mine…written by me? Oh, to be an author. People respect an author. It was the
beginning.
Then there’s also a second part to the question:
Why do I keep writing after 45 years of it? Because I can’t not write. I can’t stop.
The stories take over my heart and mind and demand to come out. It’s sort of
like birthing a baby (I have one real son and two grandchildren myself). You
carry them for a while, a short or long time span, and then once they’re born
(published) they go on to be their own individual entities that sometimes
continue to amuse and amaze you. Or disappoint you. Whatever.
This is
what it’s like to be a published author.
It’s
not like anything you would imagine. There’s excitement, the passion and
feeling of being right with the world, as the story is being created and the
words are tumbling out into the computer; there’s the exhaustion of writing
hours and hours, the doubt that your words will mean anything to anyone and why am I doing this? that creeps in but
that you have to chase away; there’s the pride in seeing the finished book,
either e-book or print, and finally there’s the feeling of unexplainable
happiness when someone says they read it and liked/loved it. The best response
I love to hear is: I couldn’t put it
down. The characters were all so real. I got carried away with it. Didn’t want
to leave the world you’d created. Wow. That makes the sometimes low pay and
grueling hard work all worthwhile because writing is hard work, or, at least, the
creating and promoting of it anyway. Hour and hour, day after day, year after
year. It’s your life you’re using up, your precious time and you have to truly
love it to give all that up…to strangers.
Sometimes
people ask me: is it still fun?
Fun?
That’s a strange way to put it. Sometimes, rarely, it’s fun. Mostly it’s hard
work and lots of solitary time alone. Writers live so much of their life in
their make believe worlds they get lonely for the real world, real breathing
people and adventures. I know I do. But the writing won’t leave me alone until
I write down the words and tell the tale. The easiest way I can put it is when
I’m writing or dealing with my writing I feel like I’m doing what I was born to
do. Yes, I believe a writer is born to write–like an artist is born to paint
and draw; a musician to write or play music. As an artist myself I know I’m not
truly happy, or fulfilled feeling, unless I’m writing, drawing or singing.
Creating. Though the singing and the artwork have gone more by the wayside as
I’ve become older and writing mostly takes all my free time now. Yes, writing does make me happy. Grin. Except
the rare times someone hates one of my books and that happens, too. I’ve
finally learned that reading and loving a book or short story is subjective.
Some people love my stories, get them, and others…don’t. And that’s okay. We’re
all different people. That’s a lesson a
writer must learn. One person’s criticism is not a blanket criticism of all
your work or even that one work, it’s just one
person’s opinion.
Is it
lucrative? This first part I originally
wrote in 2o11… before I started self-publishing in August 2012. Now, in 2016,
with all my 24 books now self-published I am making a good living at my writing
for the first time ever. But here’s my answer from 2011 when I was still
with publishers: That’s a loaded question and most writers will not talk
about how much they make or a book makes. Maybe, this is just my theory, it’s
because most of us make so little it embarrasses us. There’s no way we could
ever live on it. It’s icing on the cake, trim on the woodwork, for the
mid-level writers anyway. The top (very rare) writers like Stephen King, Dean
Koontz and many other writers make a very good living, but most writers don’t.
Ever. Oh, in my heyday in the 1980’s and early 1990’s I made fairly good money
with Leisure and Zebra paperbacks, because back then the distribution and print
runs were so large, thousands at a time. I got a smaller percent in royalties (4-6%,
no joke) but there were more books out there on the shelves and in the stores selling
for me.
*
So far my self-published e-books and PODs (Print on Demand) don’t sell near as
many copies, but I get a much larger percentage (52-70%, yeah!). So selling a
small quantity each month from all my sales venues–I am what they call “wide”;
now as a self-publisher I sell my eBooks, paperbacks, and audio books at
Amazon, D2D (which is B&N, Kobo, Apple iTunes and a few others), Google
Play (which sells all over the world), Create Space (paperbacks)–and also at
Audible (audio books) sometimes adds up to a nice sum. I’m marketing (a whole
new thing for me these days after all those years with publishers) a lot,
seeking and getting reviews, joining reader and writer loops, guest blogging,
etc. It’s never ending. Thing is I don’t know how much it all helps.
Eventually, I figure, I’ll find out. I’m an optimist always.
Do I
still enjoy writing? Sure. I love it. It’s
like breathing, eating, dreaming. It’s become part of me. It’s second nature.
It took me over 40 years to say: I’m a
writer. And really feel like I wasn’t being a pretentious so-and-so or
outright lying. It took me all that time and 22 published books (soon to be 23),
2 novellas and 12 short stories, and more to come hopefully, for me to feel
deserving of the title. Even without the money, telling stories is what makes
me feel…complete. Happy. Hey, look at me
I’m a storyteller! Ha, ha, now I just have to figure out a way to keep
writing into my old age and balance both the marketing (which takes a lot of
time, too) and the actual writing. Thank
you.
2016 update: I found a way to make my
writing more profitable in 2012 because I started self-publishing. As one successful Indie
writer recently said to me: Just get the
books out there…nothing else matters, except presumably good books, I’d
add. The rest will come. And now I
have all my 24 novels self-published and out everywhere and I’m discovering it
does come. It only took me 45 years….
About Kathryn Meyer Griffith…
Since childhood I’ve been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in
the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to
write full time. But I’d already begun writing novels at 21, over forty-four
years ago now, and have had twenty-four (romantic horror, horror, romantic SF
horror, suspense, time travel, historical romance, thrillers, and murder
mysteries) previous novels, two novellas and twelve short stories published
from Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation
Books/Eternal Press. But I’ve gone into self-publishing in a big way since
2012; and upon getting all my 24 books’ full rights back for the first time in
33 years, have self-published all of them. My Dinosaur
Lake
I’ve been married to Russell for thirty-eight years; have a son and two
grandchildren and I live in a small quaint town in Illinois .
We have a quirky cat, Sasha, and the three of us live happily in an old house
in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk/classic rock
singer in my youth with my brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest
passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the day I
die…or until my memory goes.
2012 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS *Finalist* for her horror novel The Last Vampire ~ 2014 EPIC EBOOK
AWARDS * Finalist * for her thriller novel Dinosaur
Lake.
*All Kathryn Meyer Griffith’s books can be found here:
*All her Audible.com audio books here:
My Books are here:
http://tinyurl.com/oqctw7k
http://tinyurl.com/oqctw7k
Novels and short stories from Kathryn Meyer Griffith:
Evil Stalks the Night, The Heart of the Rose, Blood
Forged, Vampire Blood, The Last Vampire (2012 EPIC EBOOK
AWARDS*Finalist* in their Horror category), Witches, The Nameless One erotic horror short
story, The Calling, Scraps of Paper (The First Spookie Town Murder Mystery),
All Things Slip Away (The Second Spookie Town Murder Mystery), Ghosts Beneath
Us (The Third Spookie Town Murder Mystery), Egyptian Heart, Winter’s Journey,
The Ice Bridge, Don’t Look Back, Agnes, A Time of Demons and
Angels, The Woman in Crimson, Human No Longer, Four Spooky Short Stories
Collection, Forever and Always Romantic Novella, Night Carnival Short Story,
Dinosaur Lake (2014 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS*Finalist* in their
Thriller/Adventure category), Dinosaur Lake
II: Dinosaurs Arising and Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation, Dinosaur Lake IV:
Dinosaur Wars, Memories of My Childhood and Magical Christmas 1959 short
story (free now everywhere).
My email: rdgriff@htc.net
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