by Jacklyn PekalaWhen I was starting to read and write at a higher level than picture books, I wanted to be a famous author. The many names printed tidily across hardcover books had me dream of living a famous life with crowds of loyal readers. The early success of young adult fiction series did nothing to squash this idea of a wealthy and comfortable author. Even series written by a group of publisher employees only served to encourage me, thinking there was so much love for writing that entire teams would get to work together on one series. My younger self wasn’t familiar with the idea of a publisher series or contract employment, and from my view they must have all been in it for the passion of the craft.
Around my high school years, I started to give up on that idea as the reality of the financial conditions for even well known writers set in. Teachers encouraged the idea, but my parents were more pragmatic, pointing to the difficulty of making it in the writing industry. The world was a darker, more expensive place to exist than my younger self was prepared for. I gave in for a time, redirecting my focus towards engineering, an industry more open and easy to enter than the literary space. The work was uninteresting but theoretically safe, and my thoughts were on providing for a future family. It took spending time in college and getting a taste of what I loved again to convince me to pursue what I wanted. I owe the best of my decision to the urging of my partner, worried as they were by my stress and my lacking passion for the tables and diagrams.
Today my dream is still to be a writer, with some caveats my younger self wouldn’t have considered. I know authors are not often wealthy, or even living comfortably off of their royalties. Publishing companies are frugal, growing more so by the day, and independently publishing oneself is now a medium for ambitious video personalities more than authors. Still, it’s my dream job to write stories that capture the minds of my readers. Despite the complications and the state of the industry today, I hold the job of author in a high regard as a dream that I will strive towards no matter how many detours my life creates. My dream job is to be a professional author, and one day inspire someone else to dream the same.