Marked as Read

This month I've been forcing myself to clean out my two oldest online mailboxes. I've kept them going since I opened them back in 2000 and 2004 respectively, and they've always been cluttered. I save a lot of e-mails every week. Some I want to read twice, or put off until I have the time to write a thoughtful answer. Others are documentation of some business deal I forgot to print out. But there are hundreds of old e-mails I've also saved because I don't want to let them go.

One box is finally cleared out; I read through over 300 e-mails dating back to 2007 before finally clicking on each tiny box to mark them as read. One last time I got to see some of the highlights and low points of last eight years of my professional life, business deals and choices, and colleagues who contacted me at various times over the course of my career. The book I could write about Publishing, oy. But I'd rather simply remember the good things and the decent people as I consign all of it to the pro history vault. I do wish all the folks I've met over the years the very best.

I did see some correspondence that proved very hard to mark as read. It consisted of e-mails from people who have since gone onto the next place, and while I've accepted that, feelings for them still linger. Frank, I will always wonder what that first book of yours would have been like to read. Anne, I wish I could have met you and thanked you in person, just once. Monica, I still miss you and your wonderful storytelling. I saved all those e-mails I guess because it helped me to reread them and hear those voices again. Less painful but still pang-filled is a copy of my old blogroll HTML, which I e-mailed to myself in case I accidentally deleted it. Although most of those blogs have vanished, and their writers have been gobbled up by Facebook and Twitter, sometimes it's nice to remember how it used to be back in the early days of blogging (and maybe work on making this year on PBW better.)

It does feel better to finally let go of all these saved messages. Clean-slate good. I can keep moving forward, stop clinging to reminders of the past, and stick with the friends and colleagues who still want to keep in touch. And maybe figure out how to stop hoarding e-mails . . . .

A Request

I've been trying all day to think of humorous spin I could put on the story of this dude who deliberately shot himself to promote his book, but it disturbs me on so many levels that I can't think about it without feeling sick. There is nothing wrong with self-publishing, or self-promoting, or taking a shot at any dream you have. Everyone has the right to pursue their dreams. Taking a shot at yourself because you think it's a nifty shortcut to fame/fortune/success, however, is not the way to get there.

Writing is a solitary art, and I've always been grateful to the internet for making it less lonely. When I was chasing my dreams I didn't have other writer people to hang with, so for me it's always been a privilege to be here. I practically witnessed the birth of the online writing community, from the first day I logged on to Prodigy and started reading the message boards back in '94. At the time I was too shy and scared to talk to anyone, but it still seemed like a miracle, to be able to read other writers' stuff and follow discussions and know that it wasn't just me doing this.

When digital self-publishing became available for free to anyone, I knew it would change the industry. I even made some predictions about it. I also saw this evolution/revolution dividing the writing community into separate camps, exactly as e-book publishing did when it joined the market twelve years ago, and that happened, too. Sometimes I get so disgusted with the name-callers and the snobbery and this "every writer for themselves" attitude that I start thinking everyone in the industry is like that, and I know they're not. You all have taught me that.

Reading the story about the guy who shot himself for self-promotion confused me. I thought to do something like that he must have no friends at all. Or if he does, he doesn't talk to them anymore. Or he got so caught up in this crazy idea that he cut himself off from everyone. I don't know. I'm a pretty solitary, independent soul, but even I can't wrap my head around it.

Anyway, because of this story I come to you today with a favor to ask. It's not a big one, and it will only cost you a few minutes of your time. When you have a chance, get in touch with someone else in the writing or reader community. It doesn't matter who it is; pick someone you know at random if you like. Send them an e-mail, drop a comment on their blog, Twitter them, Facebook them, whatever is convenient for you. And when you do this, try to share something positive. Tell them a joke. Recommend a great book you've just read. If you can't think of anything, ask how things are going with them. Basically, be their online friend.

For all the changes we're going through, we're not alone in this. We are a community, and we do care about each other, and sometimes I think we need to be reminded of that.