Those were Tracy Hickman’s exact words today at CONduit.
He said it as part of his introductory remarks at his first panel, “To Cliche Or Not To Cliche,” and reiterated it on all of the panels he was on for the rest of the day.
For those of you who don’t know, Tracy Hickman has built a career spanning over thirty years, and has 56 novels still in print. He is an incredibly successful and prolific author. What’s more, he is quite possibly the most humble and sincere person at the convention: extremely approachable, and very accommodating towards his fans. He is an amazing man, and I hope to have a career like his someday.
He’s not the only big name author talking about epublishing either. I heard this secondhand so it’s not admissible in court, but L.E. Modesitt apparently had a lot to say about Kristine Katherin Rusch‘s recent blog posts concerning the disturbing changes in traditional publishing. Rusch is one of the voices at the epicenter of the indie publishing movement, along with her husband Dean Wesley Smith.
The initial shock wave of the ebook revolution has hit Utah, and people all over CONduit are talking about it. In fact, I think I spent more time today in the hall talking about ebooks than I did attending panels.
You have no idea how invigorated this makes me feel. I’ve been going around signing up bloggers for my Genesis Earth blog tour, and the sense of ownership I feel for my career is thrilling. On my way back to Provo, I made a connection between two ideas for my current work-in-progress, and I literally screamed for two minutes straight. I don’t know if I’ve ever been more excited to be a writer.
In his last panel of the day, Tracy Hickman closed with the following bold statement: if you master the art of story structure, have the dedication to work hard, and are willing to do what it takes to learn your craft, you will not only write a successful book, you will build a successful career in this world of new media.
That, my friends, is exactly where I want to be.
