So it seems that the actual writing of books is the easy part of trying to be a writer. At least for me. The hard part is trying to find someone who is willing to read what you’ve written.

Now I’m not talking about family, or a helpful (if secretly dubious) friend. I’m talking about the sort of people you need to have read your writing if you ever want to become published-at least published by a publisher. You know, agents. Editors. Those sorts of people.

Part of me believes that such people don’t really exist. They’re really the fictitious, digital creations of mailerdaemons and adbots, meant to simulate something tangible, something fleshy. As elusive as the unicorn. It’s like when your slightly drunk uncle hands you a canvas bag and tells you to keep an eye out for snipes.

I do realize that such people-if they exist-are likely very busy. I’m sure there are tens of thousands of people like me out there, sending in query emails at all hours of the day and night, industriously packaging unsolicited materials into oversized envelopes and remembering most of the time to include a SASE. Still, you’d think that the statistically inclined among us could determine just how many queries one must send before getting a non-automated response. Is it fifty? Is it one hundred? Two? Someone let me know if they’ve figured it out.

In the meantime, I guess I’ll keep emailing.