What if I Fail?

If you're like me you have had an idea or five tickling the back of your mind where you wanted to become a published author. The problem is that it's always tickled the back of your mind and never actually became a full story.

I found this article on Cracked.Com that may give some inspiration to overcome that fear. It lists 5 people who "failed" their way to fortune.

Usually I wouldn't find inspiration on Cracked.Com, a site largely dedicated to funny lists and satirical social commentary. But this list had an author named Amanda McKittrick Ros and I thought, "This would be a perfect first post topic on a new blog about my progress...or lack thereof...in trying to get published!" (there are other posts appearing "previous" to this...but those are migrated from another blog. This is the first "official" post to the NAC blog.)

From the Cracked article:
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Amanda McKittrick Ros is believed by many to be one of the greatest bad writers who ever lived. How do you earn a distinction like that? You earn it by opening your novels with sentences like this...

"Have you ever visited that portion of Erin's plot that offers its sympathetic soil for the minute survey and scrutinous examination of those in political power, whose decision has wisely been the means before now of converting the stern and prejudiced, and reaching the hand of slight aid to share its strength in augmenting its agricultural richness?"
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Her first novel, Irene Iddesleigh, was self-published by her husband as a gift. The book managed to gain a following that counted among the members C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, who publicised the book with a contest daring readers to see how far they could read it without bursting with laughter. Even Mark Twain commented on the book with a witticism.

Probably not how she meant to be known, but her books did gain readers and that is ultimately what an author wants. What's more, she managed to turn these successful failures into a career from which she made a decent living financially.

So I figure...if someone like this managed to break into being a published author...I must have some chance, right? Maybe slightly more than winning the lottery?