The long hard horrible road

Trying to get a book published is a long, hard, horrible road to travel.

If your drive to get published is deep-rooted and sincere, I don’t wish to scare you off — and I probably won’t. But let me tell you that this thing can eat you alive and make you miserable.

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Dickens said it best in “Little Dorrit:”

“At least, I’ll try,” said Clennam. “It will do me no harm to try.”

“I am not certain of that,” rejoined Doyce, laying his hand persuasively on his shoulder. “It has done me harm, my friend. It has aged me, tired me, vexed me, disappointed me. It does no man any good to have his patience worn out, and to think himself ill- used.”

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True, Dickens was talking about something else, but those words ring true for me and my trying-to-get-a-book-published experience.