Deafened by the bells this rings..

[Marc Joan]

The secret lives of writers (and their day jobs)

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I know a few broke artists in different fields. And they are top notch artists. Not known to the general public, but known to other artists. Not everyone can be the front man. Or wants to be. Not everyone can be the Laureate or win the Booker prize...and anyway, very nice and all, but that's BUSINESS.
They say genius is a daemon and genius is a spirit. Dylan Thomas, anyone. A high price is paid for the choice of doing Art and only Art, and not only by the artist.

Any writer sneering at hoi-polloi writers with day jobs is:

a) verra verra vulgar
b) lacking in honesty, because much of their income comes from related activities, and they do not rely alone on core sales.

 

[Amber]

Interesting article.

To Katie-Ellen's b - Writers are making money doing conferences and workshops etc. for aspiring authors. It's something that makes me a little sad. There's something sort of predatory about it. Or, Mary Kay about it. I don't know. It might be different in the UK and even in smaller cities in the United States.

Last week I learned of a "publisher" (in this case someone who has set up a website and "publishing" new authors work) who has her new authors sign a contract agreeing not to speak to other authors or accept advice about their writing from anyone else except her and those who work for her "Publishing House".

Yes. Those are air quotes. To me a publishing house is something different than someone who is technologically literate setting up a website. Let's call them something else please. I don't even think the phrase Indie Publisher is appropriate.

I don't like the cultish attitude of this woman, who looks normal (don't all crazy people look normal?)... but it's a new world and virtually unregulated which should be a good thing? I don't know.

 

[Carol Rose]

Let's separate the two issues.

While I certainly don't agree with insisting someone sign such a contract (and I haven't seen any of that myself on Facebook, where I hang out a lot), any author who signs such a contract without first questioning its content, and asking advice from others, is a dimwit. All one has to do is hang out on social media for a few hours, talking to authors from across the spectrum, and one will quickly and easily see that such contract terms are not the norm, and will gain you, as an author, absolutely nothing.

As far as teaching classes and workshops, yes, there are authors making money from teaching others what they've learned through hard work plus trial and error. I see nothing wrong or predatory about this, to be honest. I've learned most of the things I know about this industry from others, though I haven't paid for all of that knowledge. But I have no qualms about paying someone a reasonable amount of money to teach a class in specifics. Things I've chosen to learn more about from someone who has been there, done that, and made it work for him or her. It's no different than in any other field where people pay to attend workshops or continuing education classes. Why should it be considered predatory for authors to do it?

Some behaviors I have seen are authors who toot their own "I can teach this better than anyone else can!" horn all over social media, even going so far as to name names and call out other authors who teach the same kinds of classes. They tell everyone who will listen why those other authors aren't worth the time or money. Now that, to me, is worse than high school mean girls behavior, and I'd simply avoid those pompous, silly people like the plague.

And I don't know. Maybe not everyone has been around the block enough to be able to discern that kind of cult-like "I'm better than SHE is" nonsense from the legit authors who are simply trying to pass on the knowledge they've gained, and make a few bucks doing so along the way. As I said, I see nothing wrong with the latter. The former, well, like I also said, I'd simply avoid. And I'd also laugh at them for being such immature brats. LOL!!