Writing as a business
So...last week, there was a lot of talk about authors having to accept that writing/publishing is a business, and if authors can't accept that, they shouldn't seek traditional publishing. The conversation was mostly about having to adhere to certain minimum wordcounts, but—in my mind, at least—the conversation dovetailed a bit with some YouTube videos I was watching from agents talking about authors sticking to certain genres for business-related purposes. In other words, agents don't want to sell a book for you in one genre if you decide to pivot and write in a completely different genre, because that doesn't make business sense.
So...I'm one of those authors who writes in different genres, so obviously, I have a personal stake in this.
But my counterpoint is this: The vast majority of authors cannot make anything close to a living from publishing, even if they publish in the same genre, due to a combination of publishers paying authors little and taxes taking most of an author's income.
When it's very unlikely for you to ever make a significant income from publishing, how does it make sense to approach writing novels from a business standpoint?
The only counterargument I can think of is that authors need to at least try to approach writing novels as a business—i.e. by building your brand through publishing several books—in order to eventually see steady/significant income.
But this is asking authors to do an immense amount of labor for little money for years until their career gets off the ground. (Personal examples: It took me one entire year to write and revise my first novel, which never got an agent or traditional book deal. I drafted my third novel in two months and then spent almost two years revising it in order to get an agent/try to get a traditional book deal. I'm on my fifth month of working on my fourth novel, currently deep in the revision trenches.)
Most people simply can't do this without another job that pays their bills, unless they have a spouse who makes enough money to cover all their expenses plus healthcare. (It's like starting a new business, only worse, because you can't borrow money or get investors to give you money until you turn a profit. Unless you publish a book through Kickstarter or something.)
To be frank, I can't conceive of approaching writing this way.
I write whatever I want because I always make a decision regarding whether each story idea is worth my time. And when I say "worth my time," I mean from an emotional standpoint, because it's not possible to predict how much money a book will ever make: Do I love this story enough to devote hundreds of hours to write this book, regardless of how much money I may or may not make from it?
Quite honestly, if I were ever to reduce my writing career to pure financial considerations, my only conclusion would be that I should quit writing altogether. I am fortunate and privileged to have a day job that pays me quite well—and I honestly don't think I would ever make as much money from writing books as I do from my day job salary.
From that perspective, it doesn't make sense to treat writing novels as anything other than my passion project.
I want a traditional book deal because I want to reach a broad audience with my books; because I hope to be able to touch people with my stories. I would, of course, love to be able to make a livable wage from writing books just so I can be compensated for the time and labor I spend, even doing something I love.
But American capitalism is so broken that I don't expect to ever be able to do so.
So, I can only write the stories that I love. And the stories that I love might not make the most "business sense," but they're the only ones I can justify spending even the minimum amount of time and energy on.
So...I'm one of those authors who writes in different genres, so obviously, I have a personal stake in this.
But my counterpoint is this: The vast majority of authors cannot make anything close to a living from publishing, even if they publish in the same genre, due to a combination of publishers paying authors little and taxes taking most of an author's income.
When it's very unlikely for you to ever make a significant income from publishing, how does it make sense to approach writing novels from a business standpoint?
The only counterargument I can think of is that authors need to at least try to approach writing novels as a business—i.e. by building your brand through publishing several books—in order to eventually see steady/significant income.
But this is asking authors to do an immense amount of labor for little money for years until their career gets off the ground. (Personal examples: It took me one entire year to write and revise my first novel, which never got an agent or traditional book deal. I drafted my third novel in two months and then spent almost two years revising it in order to get an agent/try to get a traditional book deal. I'm on my fifth month of working on my fourth novel, currently deep in the revision trenches.)
Most people simply can't do this without another job that pays their bills, unless they have a spouse who makes enough money to cover all their expenses plus healthcare. (It's like starting a new business, only worse, because you can't borrow money or get investors to give you money until you turn a profit. Unless you publish a book through Kickstarter or something.)
To be frank, I can't conceive of approaching writing this way.
I write whatever I want because I always make a decision regarding whether each story idea is worth my time. And when I say "worth my time," I mean from an emotional standpoint, because it's not possible to predict how much money a book will ever make: Do I love this story enough to devote hundreds of hours to write this book, regardless of how much money I may or may not make from it?
Quite honestly, if I were ever to reduce my writing career to pure financial considerations, my only conclusion would be that I should quit writing altogether. I am fortunate and privileged to have a day job that pays me quite well—and I honestly don't think I would ever make as much money from writing books as I do from my day job salary.
From that perspective, it doesn't make sense to treat writing novels as anything other than my passion project.
I want a traditional book deal because I want to reach a broad audience with my books; because I hope to be able to touch people with my stories. I would, of course, love to be able to make a livable wage from writing books just so I can be compensated for the time and labor I spend, even doing something I love.
But American capitalism is so broken that I don't expect to ever be able to do so.
So, I can only write the stories that I love. And the stories that I love might not make the most "business sense," but they're the only ones I can justify spending even the minimum amount of time and energy on.