Publish or Perish in 2012

As I entered 2011 I made a promise to myself to stop messing around.  2011 was my most productive year as both a writer and a language forensics specialist, though it may not be immediately obvious.  2012 is, to put it bluntly, going to be my bitch.

At the Christmas get together for my much beloved writing group, the unanimous decision was to push EVERY member of the group to publish in 2012.  And the thing is… there’s no longer an excuse.  With the explosion of direct publishing, no writer can languish in the endless circular battle of submission and rejection.  While indie is not the way for all of us to go, and while it may not be the final word for each writer, it completely destroys the wall between writer and reader.  So even those of us still targeting New York (I’d hazard to guess this is still the majority) have made a pact to put SOMETHING out.  Short stories, novellas, collections, poetry… pick one.  If you are a member of SSMAWriters, you’ve got a book coming out this year.  The vote was unanimous.

I’m SO behind the idea that I’m challenging my non-SSMAW friends to join us.  Crawl under your bed, dig out that manuscript nobody wanted, workshop the SHIT out of it, and publish the damned thing.  Publish your angsty poetry.  Publish your senior thesis on Dickens and Anti-Semitism.  Publish the quirky collection of essays you still have from your stint as a college newspaper columnist.  PUBLISH SOMETHING.  If you are a writer, you have bins overflowing.  If it wasn’t good enough make it good enough.

Keep submitting.  Target your dream deal.  But publish.

The gauntlet is at your feet.