Quote:
Originally Posted by Jobby
And yet here you are - complaining that the market is completely wrong and that you are right, and that you *deserve* to be paid for what is essentially a hobby.
What were your words: "If no one wants to pay for my books, I might as well make chairs."
If that's as deep as your commitment to writing is, you'd probably be a much better carpenter.
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A major element of the entitlement people feel towards all things is the belief that something that is at once desirable is, at the same time, essentially worthless. Ebooks carry that exact impression with many web denizens, including many of those on this website: That, while they have artistic merit, they are practically/commercially worthless. If there is no worth, there is no reason it should not be given to me; so I'll just take it, since it has worth to me. A typically, egotistically circular logic that reveals itself as senseless and thoughtless.
Comments about artists that should be willing to do something because it is a great love... not because it has worth... and give it away for posterity to enjoy... considering it, therefore, a meaningless "hobby"... reflect this attitude. It is the attitude of someone who doesn't understand how the real world works, and expects the world owes them something for nothing--in fact, everything for nothing--simply because they exist.
I know a number of people who have a "commitment to writing," who cannot write their way out of a paper bag. If you don't believe those people exist, take a visit to Smashwords sometime. (Sorry, Mark.)
On the other hand, I know a number of people who are excellent writers. They write, but not out of some vague commitment to posterity, but out of a desire to take their greatest skill and turn it into a paying profession. They make money to pay mortgages and put food on the table, and they don't give a second thought to whether or not they're this century's Hemingway or Chekov.
When I write, I am not practicing a "hobby." I am trying to build a second income, which will hopefully become a major source of income on such a day (if ever) that I retire. I don't expect people to shower me with money for nothing; I expect them to appreciate the work I put in to entertain them, and compensate me for that specific work. That's how the world transacts business, all businesses, and there is absolutely no reason why writing should be any different.
So, belittle me and my wage-seeking fellow writers all you want. It says nothing negatively about me... rather, it displays your lack of appreciation for the real world and your fellow Man, and it doesn't make me feel an iota of concern.
Entitlement is juvenile. Enjoy your entitlement while you have it, because eventually, you'll have to grow up like the rest of us.