Professional jealousy is something that definitely eats me up alive. Especially as an unpublished author. It’s very difficult to see the industry — hell, the world — as anything other than a zero-sum game. Each person who gets an agent is one less chance at me getting an agent. Each person who gets a great book deal, is one less chance for me to get a great detail. There’s only so much space for success; everybody below the line fails by default.

It’s something that I try to bury, but it’s definitely there. The abundance mentality just doesn’t fit with the way the world is, at least how I see it. There isn’t an abundance. I kind of wish I did.