Hmmm...I just spent a half hour struggling with a post about writers getting paid for their stories, then deleted it. Money/payment seems to be a big taboo topic for writers. If newbies talk about the big bucks the top loop of writers receives, they're considered jealous and if those upper crust writers dismiss those who write for little or no money, well, they're just snobs. Does that about sum it up? I think so.
I don't make a lot of money with my writing. My most profitable year, I made about $1000, but I was writing a weekly column and getting paid a whopping $15 a week for it. Usually I make between $100 and $200 a year which pays for paper, writing books, and envelopes for mailing out submissions. I pretty much break even and most people would consider that just a hobby, which in all reality it is. Still I write, despite the fact that I don't make the big bucks.
Why? Because, money or no money, I love it. Because its what I choose to do with my time. Because...there's a hundred different reasons but it all boils down to the fact that its something I choose to do. I write, I research markets and I submit. What I try not to do is become stagnant.
What do I mean by stagnant? It means writing the same story over and over, submitting to the same markets that publish everything that comes their way. If you're going to write, stretch those muscles. Learn your craft, submit to markets that edit and reject and sometimes pay. If you want to become a paid professional that's the route you need to take.
Am I a shining example of what to do? Hell, no! I'm just stumbling through the best I can. I've never had money, so for me, the writing is the important thing and something I never expect to make a living at. Would I like to make the big bucks? Sure, but not at the expense of the writing. And yes, I'm weird and have a rose-colored picture in my head of what I'd like the world of writing to be.
Well, I guess I'm done preaching now, but I do have a couple of links for you.
Michael Bracken sent me this link yesterday about how to go about getting your money when the publisher doesn't send you that check. http://womagwriter.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-to-do-when-you-dont-get-paid.html
And this goes to Neil Gaiman's web site. Mr. Gaiman is getting lambasted for accepting a $45,000 speaking fee. http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2010/05/political-football-in-teacup.html
We've got both ends of the writing spectrum covered today!
4 comments:
Do you ever worry that "I never expect to make a living at" writing has become or is in danger of becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy?
The primary difference between writers who earn money from writing and writers who don't has little to do with the quality of their writing; the primary difference is that writers who expect to make money submit their work to paying publications and writers who don't expect to make money submit to non-paying publications.
This ties in with an earlier discussion about submitting to AHMM and EQMM. Write the best stories you can, then submit them to the best/best paying markets first.
If a manuscript doesn't sell to a top market, you can always fall back and submit it to second- and third-tier markets, but it's psychologically difficult to "fall upward," submitting a story to a top market after it's been rejected by all the bottom markets.
Yep, I do, Michael, but I've always lived a life full of low expectations. Makes the good things that happen even better. :)
I have submitted to EQ, AHMM, and WW in the past and have a pile of rejections to prove it. That pile of rejections is why I almost quit writing. And why I've never understood the reasoning behind telling a new writer to start at the top and work down. It doesn't make sense.
Baseball and Football players start in little league games and work up through college before going pro. Doctors and lawyers have to do internships. So, why do we tell writers to start at the top? Shouldn't they have to "pay their dues" so to speak?
Do I want to break into EQ and AHMM? Do I want to write a novel? Yes! But wanting and getting are two different things.
I'm working toward that goal by learning my craft and honing my skills. And I believe that part of that is learning how to deal with editors and learning how to find and submit to markets.
As for making a living, I've read enough posts by professional writers to know that most of them have day jobs. Yes, some do make a full time living from writing but its not fiction writing, it's editing and non-fiction writing that actually pays the bills.
Of course, on top of all that you have to toss in a husband, and grandkids and other personal details and you're running a whole nother obstacle course on top of the writing life.
To respond to your question, Sandra, we have to realize that two separate issues often get conflated into one when we suggest that writers "start at the top and work down."
One deals with a writer's career; the other deals with any particular manuscript.
Many writers--perhaps even most--pay their dues before their career ever shifts into high gear. They write for their high school newspaper and their church bulletin. They ghostwrite their boss's business letters and edit the company newsletter on the side. They get published in amateur and semi-professional publications. They write for small presses and medium presses. And someday--sooner for some than for others--they get published in professional publications or by major publishers. That's a career.
But a single manuscript is not a career. It's one tiny, tiny step in the path to building a career. Each manuscript must stand on its own, relatively independent of the rest of a writer's career. Each manuscript should be given the opportunity to appear in the best possible market.
If a writer finishes a story and thinks, "This isn't good enough for [insert title here], I'll just send it to [insert title of substantially less significant title here]," then that writer isn't giving that manuscript the chance it deserves.
Let the editors of the top publications do their jobs. Show them your manuscripts. Let them decide to publish or not publish. And let that manuscript travel from the top markets down to wherever it finally finds its level. Sometimes you'll be surprised what happens when you do that.
Consider this another way. What if your manuscript was your child, nearing high school graduation and looking forward to college? Would you look at your child and say, "We're just going to enroll you in the local community college because you're not good enough to get into a top school." Or, do you help your child apply to the top schools and let the admissions officers make the decisions or who to accept or not accept?
As always, Michael, your explanations make everything crystal clear. Thank you! Maybe its time for me to start working from the top, down.
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