The Weekend Writer: "My goal is to do well enough that my publisher wants to publish my next book."

I've been saving this interview with Elinor Lipman at Jane Friedman's website, because I think she says  some good things about writing humor and dialogue. 

I realized just a few days ago that I really don't enjoy reading interviews with, and writing articles by, authors I'm not familiar with. So I should probably say here that I've read a couple of Lipman's books and particularly liked The Inn at Lake Devine, which for some reason I thought must have been set on a lake near where I grew up. 

Something that struck me in this interview was what Lipman said about her publishing goal. "My goal is to do well enough that my publisher wants to publish my next book." That was my publishing goal, too! I really didn't care about how much money I made. I cared about a publisher for the next book.

One of the things you have to accept about goals is that you're not going to meet all of them.