Quote:
Originally Posted by rixte
I think most people want to be able to afford to eat.
I can be a bit of a book snob at times (but I've also been a fanfic reader, so it balances out!), but with a few rare exceptions, most people who write because they wish to and for free are awful at it. This isn't counting people who give away promotional copies, of course.
My disclaimer - I did an internship in publishing when I was in college. I opted not to pursue publishing as a field - and that's because you couldn't pay me enough to sit down and keep reading those slush pile manuscripts. Cutting out publishers reduces my whole future reading world to that nightmare!
|
If you wish to eat, you might consider a job that pays.
I hate to bring evil reality into the picture but skill and talent are not the primary determinants of what ANY job pays.
The determinants are how much some one wants it done, and how many people will/can do it. Will is a more dificult obstacle in the west than can.
The will/can do it thing means that unpleasant jobs often pay more than jobs requiring intellect or talent.
The high cost of printing and distributing propped writing jobs up for a longtime as publishers formed a barrier to many writers. This was true with fiction, and with reporting. Authors can not escape the paradigm shift any more than newspapers can.
Now there are a hell of a lot more writers competing for consumer dollars. And many of them have a day job.
No amount of words will change that.