I think that the sports world fails to give Minor League Baseball players enough credit for how far they have come in their sport. Maybe it is because the word “minor” is associated with the leagues they play in. Maybe it is because it is so easy now to watch any Major League Baseball team on a television or iPad. But whatever the reason, Minor Leaguers get judged less on having made it to a professional level of baseball and more on whether or not they will ever make it to the Majors.
Every once and again in my sports writing career, I would write a story about a local baseball player who had been drafted by one of the Major League clubs, and was then quickly assigned to a Minor League program. Whenever I would talk to someone about the player who had been drafted, it was only seconds before I would be asked, “Do you think he can make it to the big club?”
That is a shame. Sure, I understand the dream on the player's part to want to put on a Major League jersey. I get that fans would be more excited about a local boy becoming a Major Leaguer. But even considering that, putting on that Minor League uniform is quite the accomplishment.
Only one of of two-hundred high school baseball players ever reach any level of professional baseball – minor or major. That doesn't include the players who had to stop playing baseball at younger ages. Anyone who plays a single Minor League game has overcome tremendous odds. But because society often becomes fixated on the Major Leagues, the effort to make it to the minors often gets overlooked.
I feel this is true of many other endeavors in life, including writing.
Getting a book written and published is tough. I'm not talking about “vanity” publishing, where you can pay a publisher to print whatever you want, regardless of quality. I mean finishing a decent manuscript and either getting a traditional publishing house to print it, or self-publishing you story.
Either way, only about one out of 200 people who would like to write a book actually publish one. The odds are very similar to making it to Minor League Baseball.
If you have published a book, I want you to know – you have made it. You have overcome tremendous odds. Others had to stop somewhere along the line. Everyday life got in the way. There was an illness. A change in jobs stole away the writing time. The desire disappeared. But you got past all of that. The book that was once only in your mind is now in your hands.
However, as authors, we have to face some of the same questions that the Minor League baseball players face. Not, “when will you make it to the Majors?”, but these:
“Will it be a best-seller?”
“Are you writing a sequel?”
“Will you be traveling the country to sell it?”
“Are you going to be famous?”
“Will it be made into a movie?”
Within two weeks of The Pride of Central being released, I had already been asked all of these questions once, some of them multiple times. The questions were well-meaning, of course, but people quickly glossed over the accomplishment of being published and were already pushing for the next step.
If you get those questions when your first story is published, don't let other people's focus on the future steal your joy of the present. There is nothing wrong with pushing for the next level. That's what those Minor League Baseball players are doing, and that's what a first-time author can do as well.
But don't forget how far you have come in your journey. Many other writers would love to hold their own novel in their hands and never had the opportunity. If you have that moment in your life, remember that feeling.
Maybe one day you will break into the Majors. But you have broken into the Minors. And that is a major achievement.
Next week: The Perfect Sacrifice