I’m not getting discouraged, I’m not. Olson has ignored my repeated applications to their Proofreader position, and their HR person has ignored my repeated e-mails directly to her, and now the position has disappeared, but I’m not discouraged. I applied for a copy editing position with Target, and my Target contacts reached out to the department in question, and today I researched and discovered the position has been filled, but I’m not discouraged. I’m not.

This is actually more in line with reality. In the past, beautiful job opportunities pretty much fell into my lap, or if I had to go searching, I would be hired/contracted within two applications. What I read, however, is that the average seeker has to submit around 17 applications before securing even an interview. I’ve already had four very positive, engaging interviews, so by one metric I’m already ahead.

Is the job market so lean, or is no one interested in having their copy corrected? The casual observer will note a dire and ubiquitous need for it.

I’ve checked out a dozen books from the library on copywriting, hoping to expand my resume and apply for new opportunities, and on my own I’m taking a CSS course. I figure that couldn’t hurt, since I’ve done Content Manager work in the past and coding should be a boon. I even applied for a position that seemed tailored for me, but located in Austin (the Madison of Texas, as we call it). And yes, if it came to that, my wife stated she’d be amenable to moving to where the jobs are. As it happened, they did not consider my application, but they did write back a polite letter of decline, which is more than Olson or Target were capable of.

On the other hand, the self-published markets are exploding with the rise of e-readers. What publishing houses are realizing, to their dismay, is that readers simply want to read. Their standards are much, much lower than those of the traditional publishers, and they will pay for new material to read. Sure, each story only goes for one to three dollars, but when 10,000 people are buying any given work and you earn 70-100% of your royalties, with no middleman, that is cause enough to quit your job and endear yourself to a niche market (see also Fifty Shades of Grey). So I’m taking Scrivener out for a test drive, putting all my short stories and three novels into it, and perhaps 2012 will take a promising new direction after all. I just have to work as hard at writing as at any job in my past.