We Need Real Talk About The Business End of Writing

We are insufficiently honest about some jobs. They get hyped up, and myths are spread about them.

One of the worst offenders is writing. Freelancers get a lot of pitches from people claiming that you can sign up for their newsletter or whatever to learn how to earn a six-figure income while working only four hours a day. Aspiring novelists are told that anyone can self-publish and make it big.

None of that is true, and it is damaging nonsense.

The First Damage

Maybe this is minor, but these overblown claims detract from the people who succeed at writing.

There is always some luck involved in achieving anything. Perhaps you managed to find the right job that would allow you to save up for editors and give you time to write. This in turn let you produce a book you are proud of and put it on Smashwords or Amazon Kindle.

The result may be similar to mine: $10 or $11 over a six-year time period, and some of that from your sister kindly buying your murder mystery series.

If that is you, you should feel proud of your accomplishment. Other people should be proud of you. There are a lot of us scraping along here, and our work is fine.

In an ideal world, we wouldn’t compare ourselves to random people who claim that they easily scored a ton of money, but the sheer persistence of the braggarts make our real accomplishments look small in comparison. This is so, even though your achievements really are big.

Unrealistic Expectations Invite Parasites

Creative endeavors have always attracted a certain…type. A type of person who is totally working on that big project that will change the world, and that is why you can’t ask them to meet normal obligations, do any actual work, or get their heads out of their rump.

These folks were always a drain on everyone’s time and energy, but the grandiose claims of the marketers make them worse and attract more of them. They beg for alpha readers and talk your ear off about their dreams, but nothing ever comes of the couple pages they manage to write. When you could be finding helpful beta readers or talking to industry experts, you’re getting dragged down with the lazy.

Lack of Business Sense Blights Everyone’s Chances

The misinformation peddled by the marketers divert people who have the drive and desire to make it in the industry.

People want to go freelance, but they have no idea how to write a letter or introduction, where they could send them, how or if they should integrate writing platforms into their career, or how much they should charge for their work.

People want to publish their stories, but they don’t know where to place their short stories, how much a book cover artist costs, what type of editor to hire, how much the editor should cost, or how to market their book.

And it is rare to find anyone just being real about how much work and money that entails. You can find overviews and personal journeys sometimes, and those are immensely helpful, but we need more of that.

And offered for free or cheap, not like Writer’s Digests massively overpriced workshops.

Because the world may want to hear from you, but it won’t if you don’t master the business basics because some random blogger told you to wander through the meadow and think positive thoughts.

Exploitation

People are reliant on ‘common knowledge’ to avoid scammers because a writer’s area of expertise is almost always something else and they can’t be expected to know every detail about every law ever.

If you are swimming in an environment of pep talks and glowing, vague rags-to-riches stories, someone promising to make your book for $80, if only you will accept their editor and their fees, may sound reasonable to you. Since standard costs aren’t common knowledge, they sound legitimate to even to people who are savvy in other areas.

What I mean is that the pep talkers aren’t doing anything wrong; they’re just setting up an environment that feeds scam artists. Spreading accurate information to all-and-sundry will starve the scammers of most victims.

Writing isn’t the only job that suffers from this, but it’s one I know. I have seen a few folks talk about their challenges and the business end of things, but they really should get more air time. Anyone who combats the positive talk with real talk should get upvotes and plenty more buyers.