Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I have an even more shameful confession. When I was a textbook author (about 15 years ago now) I wrote for (hangs his head in shame) MONEY. Yes, it's true. A publisher PAID me to write physics textbooks. It was a job. I didn't do it for love. I did it for the money. Shocking, huh?
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Harry, don't be that way!
Hang your head high, man! Don't let the flower children sully your accomplishments!
Capitalism is good.. it runs the world. I, too, have done things for money--even
writing--and there's nothing to be ashamed of!
(Except maybe not making enough off your work...)
So stand up, and in a loud voice, proclaim: "I am a Capitalist! Hear me jingle! Then pay me what you owe me, you cheapskate!"
I, personally, have never given a second thought to the distinctions of "literature," or whether my work could be so labeled. I write what I like to read, and I sell the stories to others who like to read them.
I think of myself as the literary equivalent of a carpenter: I make chairs for people to sit in; and when I'm done with a chair, I sell it for a reasonable price, and start to making another when I'm ready. I enjoy chair-making, but that doesn't mean I feel I must give them away, for the sake of knowing some lucky soul sat in my chair. And when the market decides it won't buy any more chairs, I'll stop making them. Because these aren't thrones that maybe one person can sit in, and no one will ever fully appreciate... they are chairs.
But these chairs are crafted by me, using skills and tricks that I've developed for decades. Every book contains a piece of me; and even if there are a few rough spots in the work, even if others would have written a scene differently, that doesn't take away the sum of my accomplishment. My works are unique, and I'm proud to offer them... even if they're just chairs.