Today I read in utter horror, a woman attempt to take Nora Roberts to task for being: Old, too successful, stupid, bitter and a host of other things. You know what? That pisses me off and here is my response to the line of argument that getting published is hard and how dare authors take this “opportunity” away from unpublished authors:

For heaven’s sake – is it news that things are hard? Is it news that it takes a lot of time, effort and perseverance to make it in ANY profession?

Anything worth having is worth working for.

There are no magic beans. Even for a few grand, you still don’t have what you think you do. There are no shortcuts. There is only how hard you work and how much time and commitment you put into it.

I find the “well you’re Nora and no one else is so why talk about it” stuff to be disturbingly lazy. Yes. LAZY. We should all strive to be the best we can, not hold up the highest levels of success as something unachievable and therefore not worth the time. I get this same line of whining when I talk about digital publishing – that since I make a good living at it, I’m not a good spokesperson since many don’t. Bullshit. So we should what? Aspire to being meh? Do I think I’m Nora? Heck no. Does that mean I’m going to give up? Pfft.

We should admire and aspire to be like the best in our chosen professions, not just settle for mediocrity because it’s hard to be a success.

Stop your whining and write the best book you can. And if Nora Roberts, a success story not just in our genre but in general, can’t weigh in on a topic about the profession she’s so very successful at, who can? The bitters?

I’d rather take advice from a success than a bitter.

Pay to get a book photocopied or not, but don’t pretend it’s not vanity publishing and stop pretending it’s somehow because you’re too edgy for NY or everyone is too old or too stodgy or you know, just works harder than you do.