Painting by Francisco de Goya
As I navigate the waters of pitching, writing, editing, revising, and marketing, I wonder about this profession of writing. As a writer, I am expected to work for hours, days, months, years developing my craft, and honing that story, all at my own cost of time and energy. Since I’m compelled to write, it’s not an unpleasant life, rather on the contrary, an enjoyable one. I do, however, expect some financial reward at the end of the road. So, it is of some surprise that I find, here in the 21st century, that the writer is still regarded as a lowly professional by many in the publishing industry. How else to explain the free giveaways by Amazon, the great discounting of books, and the recent money grabbing deal by Simon & Schuster as described in David Gaughran’s post.
When I first became enamored of the business of writing, I read the greats, like Dostoyevsky, Hemingway, Austen, Dickens and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I was surprised to find that they all suffered for their art. In debt, Fitzgerald was lured to Hollywood in search of bigger bucks. Once there, he joined the jerks with Underwoods, which is how one movie producer viewed writers. I find this view shocking as there is no film without a script and yet the screenwriter is still often treated as a lowly writer at the bottom of the Hollywood pole.
Another brilliant writer, Leonard Cohen, toiled away at his poetry night and day for ten years. He couldn’t make a living until accidentally at one poetry reading, he put his words to song. And though he became successful, he, too, had a manager who took financial advantage of him, leaving him with little to live by.
I’ve worked in many different professions and have been paid decently for all. Good writers should be exalted. I mean, Where Would We Be Without Books? I know I write For The Love of Books. I read them to be entertained, stimulated, and to grow as a human being.
Although the market has opened up with the advent of self-publishing, it’s become harder for readers to discern which books are good. My husband recently took advantage of Amazon’s free book promotion, and downloaded 37 books. So far, after reading the first few pages of many of them, he’s eliminated more than half, which he says are just junk.I suspect that many of these “junk” books are ones that were self-published, ones that weren’t edited well and therefore, would’ve been better off staying in someone’s desk drawer.
I’m actually feeling sympathetic to those in the publishing industry as the rules of the game are changing fast. Writing has become a circus, where there are too many performers under the big top, each one scrambling for that agent, that book deal, or deciding to go out on their own through the self-publishing quagmire.
We need good writers. Writers have shaped our destinies. (example, Fiction and the Replublican Party) Writing has informed us about other cultures. (example A Young Woman’s Remarkable Journey To Find Herself ). I hope that when the dust settles in the publishing universe, it’ll be easier for the good writer to be praised and compensated for his art and his ability to make us richer in ways that are impossible to measure.
What an incredibly powerful article, Diana. I applaud you for saying it the way it is. While I’m beginning to see that there is a place for self-publishing, I think your husband’s experience of downloading books of poor quality is unfortunately the norm.
I would still love to be one of your beta readers!
Karen, thank you for your comments. As a fellow writer you know the challenges as well as I do. Wishing you a successful navigation as well.