Harder for authors to make a living.....

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

‘I have no private income, no rich wife, no inheritance, no pension. There’s no safety net at all’: Rupert Thomson'

Really and this is whose fault? Anyone with a brain knows that if you are in the arts you damn well better have a day job and be putting money away for a rainy day because you won't be able to survive forever on your art.

Times have changed and the writing was on the wall WAAAY before 2007, if he or anyone else chose to ignore it that is on them.

Sorry, but I have no patience for this kind of ignorant, stubborn, stupidity.

+100.

I mean--who amongst us DOES? (Have a private income, a rich spouse, an inheritance or a pension?). What a load of old bollox. I despise this level of arrogance, that because one is "in the arts," that somehow, what's being done is nobler than we sloggers just living lives of quiet desperation doing everyday things. ALL of us have "day jobs," it's just that most of us don't delude ourselves that whatever it is we're doing is so bloody wonderful that the world should collapse at our feet and shower us with money.

The percentage of writers or other artistes who SHOULD be showered with critical lauds and money hasn't changed. I was irked when I read poor Thomson's whine that he's going to have to give up his RENTED OFFICE and write from his garrett. Oh, The Humanity! What's wrong, did the kitchen table collapse? No living room, bedroom? That's the worst thing that's happened to him? He could apparently afford to hire a builder to renovate his garrett.

Sorry, but for those of us who are STUCK down here with the rest of the plebians, earning a living, like every other working slob, this type of whingeing just makes teeth grind.

On the other hand, the article's information about Jaron Lanier? Yeah. Too little, too late, Lanier. You and your ilk have already done the damage. Welcome to the fallout. Wonder how brilliant your wiped-out friends think you are NOW?

Hitch

[Pulpmeister]

Perhaps he is fishing for a Government handout, an Arts Council Grant...

[soulfuldog]

As someone who works in a low-paid job, and am thankful just to have it and earn what I can, stuff like this is enough to put you off buying books.....

[alanHd]

Originally Posted by soulfuldog

As someone who works in a low-paid job, and am thankful just to have it and earn what I can, stuff like this is enough to put you off buying books.....

I agree.

Who owes them a living, you have fire-fighters, nurses, policeman losing there jobs. people who actually make a difference.

ok rant over

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I mean--who amongst us DOES? (Have a private income, a rich spouse, an inheritance or a pension?).

Quite a lot of people have a pension, Hitch.

[soulfuldog]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Quite a lot of people have a pension, Hitch.

True, but there are plenty of people who have worked hard their entire lives, and just because they were in low paid jobs, will end up with a small pension that is worth next to nothing and certainly won't be enough to live on when they retire.

[QuantumIguana]

There is the rather pernicious concept of the "artist's lifestyle": going to all the right parties, meeting all the right people, traveling to all the right places and having plenty of free time. It's pernicious because because so few people can live that lifestyle - just a few who have made a lot of money from their art - or people living off trust funds.

It's also strange because it coexists with the concept of the starving artist. There are a number of people who recognize that people who spend their lives in the arts tend not to make a lot of money, but feel that they should be among the small number who do, even if the peasants don't actually want to buy their work. Perhaps they feel they should be given grants just because their work is so deep and culturally significant that we just need to support them.

I know people who live on what they can make from their art, and they tend to have chosen a rather minimalist lifestyle. They bought cheap houses in unfashionable neighborhoods, rather than try to live in live in a more expensive neighborhood. I'm told that South London isn't cheap. The idea of a writer having a day job isn't remotely new. There are books that we may not think highly of, but if they are selling, the author must be doing something right.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Quite a lot of people have a pension, Hitch.

Harry:

Of course. I should have said that I recognized it as a fact. But there are many of us--many--who have either switched gigs, or been self-employed through necessity (since the penultimate big bank crash in '89) who have bupkus for a pension. Or, as soulfuldog posted, a pension that is near-meaningless.

That wasn't really my point; it was the...I can't explain it. I'm as big a proponent of authors being paid as exists, as everyone here who has seen my posts on the topic knows. I'm a strong believer in the capitalistic approach toward publishing, whether Indie or Trade. I don't have biases against publishers as "evil" and "greedy," because I've been in business for far too many years, and I have a crisp understanding of what it takes to run a business.

BUT. I guess my "but" is that many of us aren't doing what we LOVE for a living. I'm certainly not. Most people don't. And we slog along. I've always thought that authors (in the more traditional, legacy-pubbed sense, looking at it from my own frame of reference) were extraordinarily lucky; they got to earn their living doing something that they loved. Unlike MANY of us. But at the end of the day, that means that they are self-employed. And like all the rest of us who are self-employed, or run small businesses, the market dictates. It changes. It goes up and down.

So...maybe my reaction is because they are blessed enough to do what they love. I am not discounting the work, or saying that writing isn't "real work;" of course it is. But if you are fortunate enough to be able to do what you love, then...man. Enough. I can't clearly explain why that whole piece got under my skin as it did.

Hitch

[HarryT]

I agree, Hitch. Authors have no more "right"to make a living than anyone else. If they can make a living from their writing, then good for them! Otherwise, they have to do what most of us do: find a job that you can live with, and regard it as a way of making money for your "real life".

[theducks]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Quite a lot of people have a pension, Hitch.

Pensions in the USA for non-government workers are going the way of the DoDo bird.
Mine would not rent any living quarters in this area. Lucky me.. we paid off the house years ago, now it only takes 3 months pension to pay the TAXES.
I can't get worked up about the folk around me who can't make ends meet on 100K a year. The local paper just had an article on the 10 city workers that got $100K IN OVERTIME last year

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I agree, Hitch. Authors have no more "right"to make a living than anyone else. If they can make a living from their writing, then good for them! Otherwise, they have to do what most of us do: find a job that you can live with, and regard it as a way of making money for your "real life".

Yes, Harry, thank you; that kind of sums it up nicely for me. I think that being fortunate enough to do something you love must be...just fabulous. Being able to eat while doing that is even better. If scads of folks love your stuff, and you make oodles of money, GREAT. But that last bit isn't an entitlement. It's the same exact thing as any other entrepreneur; ups, downs, and lots of in-the-middle, just-getting-along. ;-)

My One Twoo Wuv Ducky:

If your house is paid for, you are truly fortunate. We had our last house paid down to the nubs, but I couldn't resist the chance to buy a place that suited us far better in 2008, at what I thought was the bottom of the market (yes, we lost some equity in the other house by selling at the same time, but...). So, I think my heirs will be paying this puppy off! ;-)

Hitch

[pdurrant]

What a load of winging nonsense that article was. I've go no sympathy at all for a full-time writer (of just 9 novels!) at 60 who now has to give up his LONDON-BASED rented office and work from a BUILDER-CONVERTED attic room instead.

Perhaps if he had invested his money more wisely than wasting it on office space, he wouldn't now have money worries.

And just what does he think he could do if he wasn't being a full time writer? At 60 with no significant office skills, I think he'd find it very hard to find any other job at the moment!

[soulfuldog]

Yes in an ideal world it would be great if everyone could get paid for doing something they are good at and enjoy doing. It just doesn't work like that though. The fact is, those that make enough money to live comfortably from doing something they love, particularly on the creative side, are just very lucky. For the majority, its a hard slog and doing the thing they love requires dedication because it usually comes in second place to something that makes you a living.

[silverraven]

Originally Posted by soulfuldog

Yes in an ideal world it would be great if everyone could get paid for doing something they are good at and enjoy doing.

I'm really really good at laying on a nice warm sandy beach, reading good books, while cool drinks are delivered by a really good looking cabana boy . Think I can make a living at it??
S

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by soulfuldog

Yes in an ideal world it would be great if everyone could get paid for doing something they are good at and enjoy doing.

You know what the problem is?

As soon as a hobby becomes work, making one do it day in, day out, 8 hours a day, years on end, many people stop enjoying it.

The most ideal situation would be if people had the opportunity to switch jobs regularly; and I don't mean going from writing websites in PHP, to writing sites in C#, or going from fixing cars to fixing motor cycles. I mean a REAL switch to a either a very different field, or a very different job in the same field.

Nowadays however, many companies treat people over 25 as if they are unable to learn anything new. "Oh, you don't have 7 years experience in doing this? Then we don't want you for this position. You just keep doing what you've always been doing." This even happens within one and the same company, where others decide that you "obviously" can't do something new or different.

That makes people feel stuck in their work; they want to do something else and are willing to study for it, and work hard to obtain experience, but no company or boss or manager will give them the chance, because *they* decide that *you* can't do it, and can't learn it either.

The consequence is that people get disgruntled, dissatisfied, and stop caring. They just slog away at an unending mountain of work, just because they need to pay their bills... until the company decides they don't want that employee anymore because "he lost his heart for the company" or because of "economic circumstances", and then you're a goner.