Why Bookstores Sell Coffee

The boy needed a book for Economics class, so I was off to the local vendor to support independent bookdealers everywhere. Sure, I cringed as I paid out close to thirty dollars for one hardcover book, but Freakonomics is the sort of tome that can tolerate a second or third reading. Only books that will stand such review are worthy to be added to the home library.

And as long as I was there...

My pile of 'to be reads' was bare. John Irving's latest was in the discard pile, the 'what were the publishers thinking and doesn't this man have an editor' rejection collection. Repetition, the same thing over and over again for one hundred thirty pages and I'll be damned if I'll waste my time with such garbage. James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man was a healthy antidote to Irving's nonsense, but the novel was finished, cover to cover, and I needed more words, so....

The clever shopowner has a table in the center area, where she stacks little piles of new fiction, some literary, some NYT bestsellers, but nothing that you'd find in the racks at Wal-Mart. What better place to pick up something, or at least get an idea of what's available so I can head over to the library. One by one, I picked up the newest novels and scanned the back cover for information. Slowly, my eyelids began to droop. Boring story. Not interested. Not another weeper about an Arabic woman. Mother dealing with troubled teens, anorexia, self-mutilation, boring, boring, who cares?

Thank goodness the comfy chairs were taken or I might have been tempted to take a little nap. I could have used a rush of caffeine, a little buzz to shake out the 'poor excuse for writing' doldrums that were lulling me into somnambulence. Being a very small shop, there was no corner taken over by Starbucks, and so I had to make do with a walk and fresh air to wake up.

I'm on the verge of packing it in. I thought I could write a decent query letter, but now I can't seem to get an agent to bite. I once had encouragement from agents in their rejections, but now I'm only getting forms or no response at all. Take classes, attend workshops, network, but I've a full time job and responsibilities, so those options are not viable. As for reading to study the market, I've done that, and I can't stand the market. I don't want to be published that badly that I would put together something I'd be ashamed to claim as my own.

Publishing has changed, even within the three or four years that I have been shopping manuscripts. The faster I run, the further behind I get.