I really am going to keep this post short and sweet. I don’t want to lose anyone with a long post.

When I first thought about writing a post that deals with authors behaving like professionals, I did a search and came up with links to articles that talked about “authors behaving badly,” for the most part. This surprised me more than I thought it would.

Are there really that many authors behaving badly?

I thought that was a shame to see this blasted all over the Internet. Most of the authors I know behave like professionals. If and when they see an author behaving badly…and behaving badly covers a lot of ground…they are just as upset as everyone else.

There are many reasons why authors should behave like professionals at all times. If I listed them all here this wouldn’t be short post. So I won’t do that…even though I reserve the right to do that in the future.

But I did find two posts that are good examples of authors behaving like professionals. I think they’re both so good I’m not going to do anything but link to them to show you what I’m talking about instead of telling you.

Here’s one from the Lily – Neon Vagabond – Fantasy Thriller blog. The title of the post, “How to be a Professional,” says it all. With all the things I saw happen last week regarding a new web site I refuse to link to, it was refreshing to read it.

And here’s one from author Jeremy C. Shipp’s blog that shows he’s a professional, without even saying a word about it.

Why is this so important? There are many reasons, one of which I believe has to do with publishers and the future. Right now we’re going through a lot of changes in publishing. But I don’t see large publishers disappearing any time soon. And that’s where the big book deals are right now, and in the near future. Agents aren’t disappearing either. They are the ones who are still making the big book deals right now. And they are looking for professionals, not ranters.