“There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who
write for the subject’s sake, and those who write for writing’s sake.”–
Arthur Schopenhauer
Today’s post is written in collaboration with my great writer friend
Tom Lowery. In conversations we’ve discussed the realities of life as a
writer. Most would agree that strong writing is a better business
advantage than ever before, but given the challenges of writing as a
career path, we’ve mused about the reasons people enter writing careers
at all.
Says Tom: “Imagine this—after years of working at a career you hate, you wake up one day and decide it’s the first day of the rest of your life—you’re going to be a writer. Not just any old writer, but one who’s the exception to the rule and will break into stardom with your very first book. Bully for your pipe dream.”
Anyone who thinks a writer’s life is an easy one has at least one problem; they don’t know that they don’t know. You hear stories about writers like JK Rowling (Harry Potter) and E.L. James (Fifty Shades of Gray) and you know you could write a much better book than those two did. Well, if everyone could write a best-selling book that gets made into a multi-million dollar series of movies, they would.
Writing is 5% talent and 95% hard work—very hard work. As Tom discovered when he interviewed a number of writers for Huffington Post, most writers—even those who write full time for a living–face a plethora of demons that cause them considerable grief.
Author Winslow Eliot (The Happiness Cure) has pointed out some sobering facts. According to a survey conducted by Bowker, in 2002 the total number of books published was 247,777. Eight years later
it’s 4,134,519. That’s a lot of competition. By comparison, early in
the 1900s there were under 10,000 books published in the U.S. “Whether
we like it or not,” Eliot, “writers always have to consider how one can
compete in a world that seems glutted with so many books – and many of
them really good ones.”
Some people write because they seem to thrive on competing with others, often getting a boost from the act of competing alone. Neither Tom nor I ever have. We compete with ourselves to be the best we can be and seek, when possible, to help others be the best they can be. But we also know we have to keep step with others in order to build a career.
Based on the stats, it seems that nearly everyone in existence wants to publish a book. Professional writers (particularly those of us who either want to write a book or become full time journalists) would be fools to ignore the competition. Being good isn’t good enough—building a solid platform, standing out from the crowd, getting subjects and presentation “right” and being successful at networking and promotion are just a portion of what it takes to enter the publishing game. And when you have been published, you need to be successful at selling yourself.
Everyone is Selling Something
Every person who’s taken a breath has sold something at some time in their life. Even going to a job interview or asking for a date is a form of selling. But for many, the process doesn’t come easy.
“Part of getting people to buy your book is making them like you,” says gothic romance author Adrienne Monson (Dissension: The Blood Inheritance). “For me, not making sales can feel like a personal rejection.”
That fear of rejection is what stops many potentially successful writers from ever getting up to the gate. But other issues are problematic as well.
As a first time author, Elona Shelley, writer of the ground-breaking Confessions of a Molly Mormon, an autobiographical book about her experiences as the Mormon mother of a gay son, didn’t initially realize she’d be responsible for selling her book. “I didn’t really want to be the face or voice for my book,” said Shelley. “But since then, my fear has been kept at bay because I’m passionate about the message. I have a great desire to share my experiences in hopes of helping others avoid the pain I felt and the pain I created.”
Passion for writing and passion for your topic can take prospective
authors a long way, especially in the face of the daunting facts:
Can Writers Making a Living?
The truth is, very few writers make a full time living from writing. And those who do face other hard realities as well: under-appreciation, having their words tossed out in favor of “better ones” which turn out to be awful, or, as the late Agatha Christie bemoaned, having your characters do and say things on screen they’d never do in the books. Actor Jack Klugman was forever giving writers a bad time during the making of his television series, Quincy M.E. And Jackie Gleason was notorious for abusing his writers.
An immutable writing truth: “No compulsion in the world is stronger than the urge to edit someone else’s document” – H.G. Wells
As to earning money from writing, here are some interesting facts:
Why We Do It
So why do so many writers persist in writing at all? Maya Angelou
sums it up nicely: “Simple answer: you write because you have to. A
writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the
need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to
share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood.”
There are many other reasons as well: To explain something, make a point, tell a story, report what happened, communicate, make someone else think, invent a world of characters, share information with others…it’s an almost endless list.
Former fashion designer Sheilaa Hite (The Spiritual Hedonist) writes because she finds great emotional happiness in helping others. “Despite the frustrations and the difficulties, I continue to write for a living because I have to—not just for the well-being of my finances. My business is helping and guiding others. This makes the struggles worthwhile—writing allows me to guide more people, to reach a bigger audience with my message, to know that I’m making a positive contribution to society and to make a living doing what I love to do.”
Monson feels that if she ever stopped writing, her brain would continue to create stories, regardless. Though writing novels has very little materialistic reward, she feels a great sense of accomplishment in being able to touch the lives of others. “In this small way,” says Monson, “I get to know and bond with thousands of others across the world–people I’ll never meet in person and who I would otherewise never have known. I don’t think I could ever give that up!”
Eliot understands that we all need to make a living. “When times are hard and clients are slow in paying,” says Eliot, “writing becomes, for me, more of an obsession than a career decision. I’d try to be content with a regular job, but in the past, I’ve always fallen off the wagon and gone back to writing.”
One writer who writes for both the sake of topic and for personal growth is Bill Brenner, author of the OCD Diaries
blog. His blog has grown considerably since he began it in 2009 during a
wave of depression. His goal was to get the sad and angry feelings out
of his system. For those who read his blog, it is clear he went far
deeper: “After a while, I decided to come clean with the world about all
of my demons, OCD and addictive behavior in particular. I thought that
perhaps doing so would destroy a few stigmas along the way. I soon
expanded it into a memoir of sorts, including my upbringing in Revere,
Mass., my childhood battle with Crohn’s Disease and how those things
shaped the manifestation of OCD within me.” Since then, Bill has amassed
a considerable following, including both Tom Lowery and me.
My own opinion for why I write is similar to Tom’s. It’s a great thing, both of us believe, to delve into subjects that matter and to have immediate feedback — even instant feedback — on how we have done. When the messages come back from readers saying that career paths changed, decisions were made and life plans altered based on something you’ve written—there’s nothing quite like it. Being increasingly regarded and recognized as an authority on meaningful subjects—and then working to ensure you live up to the billing—is an incredible thing.
Acts of Writing
Different writers have different feelings about what they do, not to mention methods. Adrienne Monson loves writing “because I’m giving to an industry that I take from.”
Despite being frustrated by her lack of productivity (freely admitting the notion of a good party is all she needs to stop writing at a given moment) and not having to make a living from her writing, Elona Shelley reports she forged forward because she was totally committed to completing the message in her book and was determined to make it a reality.
Eliot has always been extremely disciplined with her writing. She says, “I don’t think it’s possible to be successful without that kind of commitment.”
For Sheilaa Hite, it’s a love of words: “Words are the building blocks of conscious expression and the connecting bridges between human beings,” she says. “The magic of language never ceases to amaze and delight me. I realize and accept that I have a responsibility to use it positively. Words can be as comforting as a hug or as lethal as a sword.”
Says Tom: “Writing for viral advantage isn’t the over-arching goal; writing for useful, long-lasting content is. The more useful your content, the better readership numbers you’ll accumulate. And the better your chances are to secure better pay for your work. Speaking for myself and my business writing, I love doing research and finding ways to put it all together. I also enjoy being contacted by people—often presented with ideas on plate. But the process of writing, even when I find it difficult, is liberating because I can do it on my own, deep in the pocket of my mind.”
In summary, if you’re still feeling the urge to write the next international best seller, ask yourself the following questions:
Tom Lowery, who collaborated on this article, is a columnist for Huffington Post and a freelance writer whose work appears in Business-to-Community, CMS Wire, Yahoo Finance, and Social Media Today. He also publishes a personal blog, Thinking Out Loud.
autor:
 |
| Tom Lowery is a national columnist who contributes to a variety of publications. |
Says Tom: “Imagine this—after years of working at a career you hate, you wake up one day and decide it’s the first day of the rest of your life—you’re going to be a writer. Not just any old writer, but one who’s the exception to the rule and will break into stardom with your very first book. Bully for your pipe dream.”
Anyone who thinks a writer’s life is an easy one has at least one problem; they don’t know that they don’t know. You hear stories about writers like JK Rowling (Harry Potter) and E.L. James (Fifty Shades of Gray) and you know you could write a much better book than those two did. Well, if everyone could write a best-selling book that gets made into a multi-million dollar series of movies, they would.
Writing is 5% talent and 95% hard work—very hard work. As Tom discovered when he interviewed a number of writers for Huffington Post, most writers—even those who write full time for a living–face a plethora of demons that cause them considerable grief.
Author Winslow Eliot, The Happiness Cure
Some people write because they seem to thrive on competing with others, often getting a boost from the act of competing alone. Neither Tom nor I ever have. We compete with ourselves to be the best we can be and seek, when possible, to help others be the best they can be. But we also know we have to keep step with others in order to build a career.
Based on the stats, it seems that nearly everyone in existence wants to publish a book. Professional writers (particularly those of us who either want to write a book or become full time journalists) would be fools to ignore the competition. Being good isn’t good enough—building a solid platform, standing out from the crowd, getting subjects and presentation “right” and being successful at networking and promotion are just a portion of what it takes to enter the publishing game. And when you have been published, you need to be successful at selling yourself.
Gothic novelist Adrienne Monson
Every person who’s taken a breath has sold something at some time in their life. Even going to a job interview or asking for a date is a form of selling. But for many, the process doesn’t come easy.
“Part of getting people to buy your book is making them like you,” says gothic romance author Adrienne Monson (Dissension: The Blood Inheritance). “For me, not making sales can feel like a personal rejection.”
That fear of rejection is what stops many potentially successful writers from ever getting up to the gate. But other issues are problematic as well.
As a first time author, Elona Shelley, writer of the ground-breaking Confessions of a Molly Mormon, an autobiographical book about her experiences as the Mormon mother of a gay son, didn’t initially realize she’d be responsible for selling her book. “I didn’t really want to be the face or voice for my book,” said Shelley. “But since then, my fear has been kept at bay because I’m passionate about the message. I have a great desire to share my experiences in hopes of helping others avoid the pain I felt and the pain I created.”
Elona Shelley, Confessions of a Molly Mormon
Can Writers Making a Living?
The truth is, very few writers make a full time living from writing. And those who do face other hard realities as well: under-appreciation, having their words tossed out in favor of “better ones” which turn out to be awful, or, as the late Agatha Christie bemoaned, having your characters do and say things on screen they’d never do in the books. Actor Jack Klugman was forever giving writers a bad time during the making of his television series, Quincy M.E. And Jackie Gleason was notorious for abusing his writers.
An immutable writing truth: “No compulsion in the world is stronger than the urge to edit someone else’s document” – H.G. Wells
As to earning money from writing, here are some interesting facts:
- Half of self-published authors make $500 or less. (Source: The Guardian)
- Technical writers’ median salary was $63,280 per year in 2010; not exactly unreasonable. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)
- Hourly content writers can sometimes get between $10 to $13 per
hour; monthly content writers average between $286 to $311. (Source: Glassdoor.com)
But if you ask the average content writer what he or she earns the answer usually falls between $5 to $15 per 500-word article, which means they have to write as many as 10 articles day to make a moderate living. More established writers are able to get $35 to $75 per piece on the freelance content writer front, when they get the work. - Writers of fiction, however, have it hardest of all. Independent publishers are currently paying an average of only $1,000 to $5,000 for advances. For novelists, ten years ago, an established fiction author could make around $30K per book in advances. This meant that if you produced a book a year, the advance plus royalties on sales would allow you to do well. Now the advance is typically closer to $10,000. There was also a time when new authors could make at least $5000-$7000 per advance. Now it seems a new author is lucky to get $3,000 if they are fortunate enough to be considered at all. (Source: Chron)
- Of the professional journalists who are able to secure regular, paid contributor gigs with national news outlets such as New York Times, Harvard Business Review and, yes, Forbes, they must work diligently to continue to earn a reasonable pay. (Note: Most Forbes contributors are thought leaders who publish their materials unpaid, but for those who are paid, Lewis Dvorkin reports that 75 of Forbes’ base of 1,200 contributing writers will top $45,000, which is the average freelance reporter salary, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Six will top $100,000 this year.)
- Non-fiction books are a different animal, and can command a huge range in advances. However, many first-time authors are getting no advances these days, and are even faced with the requirement to guarantee the sales of at least 25,000-30,000 copies to get published.
- A confidential survey of writers who’d been paid advances from 51 publishing houses between 2000 and 2013 showed new author advances at a median average of $7,350.98 (but this number includes the few who managed to secure as much as $62,500). Most got less than $3,000, and many got nothing at all. (Source: Brenda Hiatt)
Why We Do It
Fashion designer turned author Sheilaa Hite
There are many other reasons as well: To explain something, make a point, tell a story, report what happened, communicate, make someone else think, invent a world of characters, share information with others…it’s an almost endless list.
Former fashion designer Sheilaa Hite (The Spiritual Hedonist) writes because she finds great emotional happiness in helping others. “Despite the frustrations and the difficulties, I continue to write for a living because I have to—not just for the well-being of my finances. My business is helping and guiding others. This makes the struggles worthwhile—writing allows me to guide more people, to reach a bigger audience with my message, to know that I’m making a positive contribution to society and to make a living doing what I love to do.”
Monson feels that if she ever stopped writing, her brain would continue to create stories, regardless. Though writing novels has very little materialistic reward, she feels a great sense of accomplishment in being able to touch the lives of others. “In this small way,” says Monson, “I get to know and bond with thousands of others across the world–people I’ll never meet in person and who I would otherewise never have known. I don’t think I could ever give that up!”
Eliot understands that we all need to make a living. “When times are hard and clients are slow in paying,” says Eliot, “writing becomes, for me, more of an obsession than a career decision. I’d try to be content with a regular job, but in the past, I’ve always fallen off the wagon and gone back to writing.”
Bill Brenner, The OCD Diaries
My own opinion for why I write is similar to Tom’s. It’s a great thing, both of us believe, to delve into subjects that matter and to have immediate feedback — even instant feedback — on how we have done. When the messages come back from readers saying that career paths changed, decisions were made and life plans altered based on something you’ve written—there’s nothing quite like it. Being increasingly regarded and recognized as an authority on meaningful subjects—and then working to ensure you live up to the billing—is an incredible thing.
Acts of Writing
Different writers have different feelings about what they do, not to mention methods. Adrienne Monson loves writing “because I’m giving to an industry that I take from.”
Despite being frustrated by her lack of productivity (freely admitting the notion of a good party is all she needs to stop writing at a given moment) and not having to make a living from her writing, Elona Shelley reports she forged forward because she was totally committed to completing the message in her book and was determined to make it a reality.
Eliot has always been extremely disciplined with her writing. She says, “I don’t think it’s possible to be successful without that kind of commitment.”
For Sheilaa Hite, it’s a love of words: “Words are the building blocks of conscious expression and the connecting bridges between human beings,” she says. “The magic of language never ceases to amaze and delight me. I realize and accept that I have a responsibility to use it positively. Words can be as comforting as a hug or as lethal as a sword.”
Says Tom: “Writing for viral advantage isn’t the over-arching goal; writing for useful, long-lasting content is. The more useful your content, the better readership numbers you’ll accumulate. And the better your chances are to secure better pay for your work. Speaking for myself and my business writing, I love doing research and finding ways to put it all together. I also enjoy being contacted by people—often presented with ideas on plate. But the process of writing, even when I find it difficult, is liberating because I can do it on my own, deep in the pocket of my mind.”
In summary, if you’re still feeling the urge to write the next international best seller, ask yourself the following questions:
- Are you tenacious, meaning a self-starter who can work alone for long periods of time and still keep at it?
- Can you handle criticism and use it constructively? Do you know the difference between valid criticism and emotional reaction?
- What about your grammatical skills? Spelling? Punctuation? Are they good?
- Can you self-edit your writing? Are you able to spot scenes that don’t propel your story towards a coherent climax? Do know the difference between necessary and unnecessary words?
- Are you willing to work your way up writing ladder (income and name recognition)?
- Are you able to sustain yourself financially?
- Do you really like writing?
Tom Lowery, who collaborated on this article, is a columnist for Huffington Post and a freelance writer whose work appears in Business-to-Community, CMS Wire, Yahoo Finance, and Social Media Today. He also publishes a personal blog, Thinking Out Loud.
autor:
Cheryl Conner, Contributor
sursa: forbes.com