ARE YOU A WRITER? 作家這名銜

Author is always a popular dream occupation of every child. However, I really wonder how many authors are there in this blossoming city. Flipping through “The Making of a Bestseller”, a book written by Brian Hill and Dee Power describing the publishing trend in the United States, I am surprised by the figures it mentioned, “more than 24 million adults in the United States consider themselves creative writers but less than 5% have ever been published anywhere”. Found it strange? In fact, the case in Hong Kong is even worse. It is so weird that Hong Kongers are reluctant to call themselves as authors or writers even when they’ve already published a book.

喜歡詢問別人的童年理想。除了老師、醫生、警察等職業外，作家也是常見答案。然而，在我們所身處的這座城市，真正當作家的，又有多少？翻開Brian Hill與Dee Power合著的《The Making of a Bestseller》，裡面談及美國的出版狀況：「全美國有二千四百萬人報稱作家，可是真正出版了書的，不夠百分之五。」看到這裡，我不禁咧嘴而笑，原因很簡單：香港情況可完全相反，出版了書籍的，同時又敢於把自己稱為作家的，恐怕也不夠百分之五。