Recently, Amazon.com has started informing its Kindle eBook writers of a special fund that’s been set aside to reward its most popular and most highly read writers. The fund is increased regularly in the amount of millions of dollars and is distributed as bonuses to deserving authors. While I am nowhere near that mark, and may never be, I can still imagine what it would be like to open my bank account someday and see that a very large deposit had been made in my name.
At the age of 64, I find myself in the position of “struggling writer,” with all the socio-economic attributes that generally accompany said status at any age. While I’m not starving, I’m certainly “going without” and “making do” in many other ways. While I don’t like that aspect of this experience at all, I’ve still not reached the point where I am ready to throw it all in and walk away to do something else. I’ve wasted enough precious time in my life doing other unproductive things while I could have been writing, so at this point in time, it really IS a case of “now or never.”
Chronologically and practically speaking, I no longer have as many years as I did when I was 30 or 40 to get it right. So I made a promise to myself awhile back that, no matter how tough the going got, I wouldn’t give up, at least not until there were no more signs of life in either me or my work.
So yeah…I’m going to dream of that Amazon money, and what it would feel like to NOT have to worry anymore, or at least not for awhile…to know that I can take my old car to a reputable garage and not cringe when they hand me the bill…or to be able to buy a new outfit now and then to add to the basic black that I’ve been wearing for years now…to go out for Chinese and to have cable TV again…buy fresh, not frozen-at-sea haddock at $8.99 a pound…buy a brand new book whenever the spirit moves me, or make a substantial gift to charity in double instead of single digits.
If I can write, I can also dream. If memory serves me well, I have had a few dreams come true in my life so far. One more certainly couldn’t hurt!
My list of Kindle eBooks can be viewed here at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00JJ259DS
Writing Out Loud 