Let me explain what I mean by both these things.
People don't respect what I do for a living at all, which is probably because they don't understand what I do on a day-to-day basis. Non-writers don't seem to understand how writers work, which is probably because we sit alone for hours and don't talk to anyone.
If I went to an office every day and spent most of the day writing and typing, they'd understand. But because I sit alone at home and do that instead, it seems incomprehensible to most people.
Writers are never seen as noble as the man who comes to fix your oven, or a person who works on a construction site, or even the people who work in the cabins on a construction site.
Nope. If we don't physically go out to work every day, no one seems to respect what we do.
I find it strange because these same people will read a great book and admire the author, yet if they saw the author writing at home, they'd say it doesn't look like real work.
So how do you get respect from those you know for what you do?
You don't. It's impossible to convince others that you’re a hard worker and that what you do has merit if you're a writer working from home. Those you know you won't respect or understand what you do.
But they don't have to, so don't share.
It doesn't matter what anyone thinks about you being a writer. I’ve been earning all my income from my writing for over 20 years, and my friends and family still don't want to talk about it with me. Even if I bring it up, they change the subject.
My latest novel, Jackolantern, was published four weeks ago, in time for Halloween. It's selling steadily, and I even pre-sold quite a few copies before the publishing date because people were eager to read it. But my friends and family don't even know I wrote it, let alone that it's published and plenty of people are buying it ready for Halloween.
And they'll probably never know. So let them not know.
I enjoy what I do,
And that's really all that matters.
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