Career Choice, Am I wrong?

I Excel in art. Have since I was 7. I can draw, paint, sculpt and design anything. I also Excel in writing. I excel in anything dealing with talking to the public. So naturally I won awards, sold pieces, payed to create things, made the newspaper etc. Even was accepted into one of the top art colleges. And I was a reporter and photographer for my last college's newspaper for years and editor of that college's yearbook. And I was in several clubs (which I was always in the top positions within those clubs). Now....I have wanted to be a copy editor for a book publishing company for years (which would put me behind the scenes for one...good god,finally) but I'm not getting much support from anyone. Everybody, and I mean every damn body, wants me to be an ARTIST. Period. And if I have to be in the publishing world then they want me to be a publicist cause then I'll be in the public eye for my clients and mingle, network and do what I do naturally best. Otherwise I'm wasting natural talent that my family and teachers groomed in me. Yada yada *sigh* It's making me question whether or not I picked the right career choice. My passion is for editing works. I even put foot notes in some of my favorite novels of what that author would've done better and helped my friends edit their finals papers lol I want my art to be something I don't get paid to do anymore otherwise I'll loose my love for it and I wouldn't be able to handle that. It's the true love of my life and love and career should be separate from each other. Am I wrong? You can tell me if I'm wrong. Anybody else can relate, maybe? I need help people!

If you wanna be a copy editor then dammit, do it! It's not like you can't change your mind if you find it isn't for you. But what ever you do, don't do something because someone else wants you to. It leaves you with the worst feeling and regret. And you may end up resenting people for it. Who knows, it may provide you with an opportunity to find out how you may be able to use your art for a career. Remember to see this as a step that will lead to the next one, not an end-all-be-all destination.

If you don't want to be paid for your art, I suggest you keep it as a hobby and do something else for your career. Mixing pleasure and work tends to make everything seem like work. take it from a guy who graduated in game design.

As an artist I agree fully with keeping it as a hobby, and not turning it into a career. There are things about being an artist that so many people do not think about when recommending it to others. If you enjoy art like drawing, doing it as a job might make you lose interest or even hate it and you'll have stress from it too. It's also pretty hard to make a living from it, because so many people are artists and you'll have so much competition and probably never get much unless you are lucky and become famous/popular or hired by some real company(which is difficult because rarely do I see places hiring artists). If you do become popular/famous, you might become depressed or miserable later on like I did, from losing the popularity/fame(and this was in a very niche group), and all the stress can make you go crazy... That's why I prefer a simple stable job like stocking shelves. It's relaxing, and doesn't involve art. If you become an artist, you have to do what OTHER people want, not draw what you want to draw, and even if you do a good job, the person may be dissatisfied and make you keep doing it again and again and if they still don't like it, they might not pay for it or will leave nasty reviews(the life of service jobs). >.<

You have to remember that consistency is key in a career. If it's a hobby, and you force it as a job, you'll lose your passion over time and your future will start looking more and more unattractive to you. I'm not sure about the pay, but if it's also a bit low, you might want to keep it as a hobby. I also agree with wat Kohagura says about the "doing what other people want" statement. Some of them can contradict your ideas and beliefs (also people suck).

Do what you love and not what others want you to do. I chose art as my career. Regardless whether my family agreed with it, they preferred me to be a doctor but nope not for me.

Sometimes turning your hobby into your jobs kills the joy, sometimes it works. The most important thing is to be doing what you want with your life. Print media is contracting due to electronic media. I do not think print will totally die but it may become a barrier to entry some as the competition will be tighter. That may be why you are getting some resistance. It is not impossible and new publishers still appear. Do what feels right and fulfills you at the end of the day whatever that may be. Good Luck.

I don't think it matters what path you take as long as you enjoy what you're doing. If you're really that good of an artist, than becoming a professional is the sensible choice. However, once you choose a profession, it's very likely that you'll be stuck doing it for the rest of your life. So my advice would be, if you can't see yourself do anything else than do the editing thing, otherwise, if you're still pondering the two options, go for the artist thing.