I belong in the service of the Queen

[rolanni]

Sigh.

The recent internet slap-fight about pay-rates has, predictably, I guess, degenerated into the tired old saw, "The Pros are deliberately keeping new writers Out."

I. Am. So. Fracking. Tired. Of. This.

Years ago, I was on an RWA list that served (for values of "serve" encompassing both frustration and abuse) what the romance writers charmingly called "unpubs" and "pubs". Every so often something Life Shatteringly Terrible (like, a book got rejected without! even! a personal! note from the editor!), and an aspiring writer would lose it all over the list, and accuse the "pubs" of "keeping new writers Out" from, one assumes, Jealousy. And Greed. And broad-spectrum Meanness.

So, now, John Scalzi dares to criticize a market for paying one-fifth of a cent a word (that means, for the math-challenged, that for every five words of your story, you get a whacking whole PENNY). And somebody gets her feelings hurt and tells the internet that Scalzi -- and Pros Everywhere -- are "pulling the ladder up" behind them and trying to exclude new writers from getting published.

First of all: Are you listening? I'm going to try to put this in the Simplest Possible Terms, so --
FIRST OF ALL: I have no such power. What, you think I email editors and say, "Psst! Hey, that woman over there working on her MFA? Don't buy any of her stuff, 'k? She might make it big and where would I be then?"

Second of all: One-fifth of a cent a word is pretty lousy pay. I think I sold a story once for a half-cent a word. (Steve reminds me that I sold a story for a quarter-cent-a-word and a hand-painted t-shirt that I wore for years. Ghod, I loved that t-shirt...) Would I do it today? Glad you asked, because that leads right into my...

Third of all: The last short piece we sold was to Jim Baen's Universe, in 2007. We did a couple of commission pieces for anthologies in... 2006, maybe? and 2005. Mostly, I don't submit short fiction on spec anymore. It's not cost-effective for me; my time is better spent writing novels.

Fourth of all: I know that a lot of people reallyReallyREALLY want to be writers. I do know that. I don't understand it, but I know it. Being a writer does not make you Important, Pretty, Smart, or Socially Apt. It makes you Strange, Cantankerous, and Egotistical. It's hard to get published, it's hard to stay published, and it's hard to earn enough to enjoy what used to be called a "comfortable middle-class lifestyle." If you write for Love Alone, you're a dilettante; if you write for money, you're gonna die broke.

Fourth of all, subsection A: There are many, many worse things in life than either (1) failing to sell a story or (2) having a novel rejected. Put your mind on it; I'm sure you can come up with a couple.

Fifth of all: Submit to whatever market you like, and sink or swim on your own. I'm really, really, REALLY tired of this.

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I don't even want to *think* about the hourly pay rate involved in writing. Even for "pro" markets.

[cordova829.livejournal.com]

Well put, Sharon.

If pros were really going into all that energy to pull the ladder up for newer authors, then by golly nobody would ever get any writing done because keeping all them great and aspiring authors is HARD WORK.

Sheesh...

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

I wish you did have that kind of power...

[lagilman]

<3's you.


(and, heee! you're using my icon! <3's you more)

[cailleuch.livejournal.com]

I don't know how many people have plonked themselves in my office saying they want to be an artist. You know applauded by the world for stupendous stuff. They want to start at the top, big bucks. They don't want to hear about what life as a commercial artist is like (you know doing stuff that other people want, not what you want). They think that they can take a couple of classes and then go to New York or Hollywood for fame and fortune. They don't want to hear how long it took some of my ex-students to get those jobs at ILM or Pixar.

I know this attitude is not new but it seems to be getting worse. Or maybe with the internet there is a bigger audience for their tantrums & sense of entitlement.

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

Dear gods, I hear you. I went to school for Architecture and now I'm tying my hand at writing, becuase I have some stories in my head that are clamoring to be written. Neither profession makes much money (which is why I've pretty much given up on Architecture) hence why I had a day job until I got laid off, and now I'm writing and job-hunting.

I don't know why people read success stories and then blatantly ignore the amounts of work and effort and growth that the successful folks went through. Maybe the Internet just makes it easier for us to hear all the whiners who would rather blame others than actually make an effort to improve.

[queenmaggie.livejournal.com]

Hell, professional performers (ie, actors, and btw, directors) get this too. Any one in the arts. You see, it looks so Easy... and Anyone could do it.

That frickin attitude has been around forever. Which is why I never give it away for free: no one would ever take me seriously again.

Rock On

[(Anonymous)]

I have a difficult time with folks that have entitlement issues in general, but man...this
attitude (to me) marks the difference between the
amateurs and the true pros. The true professional
writers invariably take criticism well, work hard at
editing their books and hard at getting them through
the system.

The attitude that I-don't-need-editing or tailoring-to-suit-the-market or an-agent/contract-will-just-appear marks the
individual as naive and when published writers
point out this isn't the way to make money, they
just, just - it defies description. Pht.

FYI - I saw an ARC of Fledgling amongst the ARCs
being offered at our library book club meeting.
I talked it up both as a story, ans as you two
being from the area. It went home to a YA reader
who is just getting into SF. [the bookseller
cries, "new meat, err, fans!"]

Lauretta@Constellation Books

[house-draven.livejournal.com]

I am SO fed up with entitlement.

I started my writing career in porn. I wrote cheap little 50,000 word novels for which I earned a whopping $500. I graduated to letters in Penthouse Forum and the like for which I earned $1,500 for 1500 words. (Alas, the pay in that market has gone down to nothing, or I'd be writing in them now.) From there I moved into educational and marketing writing freelance, and my pay rate varied from .01/word to about $450/hr. I took a turn into computer games (which paid rather well) while still doing educational writing. Since then, I've had a few short stories published in anthologies, and I'm *still* working on my first non-smutty novel. In the meantime, I take whatever non-fiction writing gigs come my way.

I have no idea if anyone will be interested in buying my novel when I finish it. If they aren't, it'll be because of MY failure to create something a professional editor thought s/he could sell to the book-buying public. I've worked for years to hone what little writing skill I have. The idea that successful novelists (many of whom have helped and/or encouraged me in my work in print) not only had the power to keep me out of the market but WOULD try to keep me out of the market is absurd. These people just can't face up to their inadequacies and need someone else to blame.

Grrrrr. This infuriates me. I can only imagine how a successful novelist must feel.

[victorthecook.livejournal.com]

Once Scalzi called that venue out, the rest was, I'm afraid, inevitable. Some people react violently to their delusions being challenged. Let me see how far I can get in the linked article...

Huh -- got to the end in only two tries. Since she's trying to be flip and snarky, I'll follow suit. Imagine me tossing my pony tail around while saying:

Looks like Snowflake's trust fund won't keep paying the bills unless she has some publications to show for it -- and you meanies are ruining it for her deliberately. Gosh. No it doesn't pay much, Mom -- but the exposure's totally worth it. And once I get my MFA, the sky's the limit, honest.

[cailleuch.livejournal.com]

An MFA means something in academia but nowhere else. I've got one it hangs on the bathroom wall with the philosophy degree. They were fun while I was getting them but in the real world not worth much. Which made the poster's I have my MFA so funny. That degree and a dollar might get you something from a vending machine.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Before the latest bust, they were saying that an MFA was the new MBA. Companies were finally hiring people who were thinking outside the box.

That probably didn't last.

I stopped at my BFA. Wanted to write books, not theses.

[(Anonymous)]

Please enlighten an ignorant reader (not, not, NEVER a writer)....

What's an MFA?

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

What's an MFA?

Master (of) Fine Arts, a secondary academic degree.

[(Anonymous)]

Sometimes even primary academic degrees aren't all they're supposed to be.

I've a sister-in-law with a Masters who teaches. I vastly pity the children she may be imparting her blind beliefs to: I can't think of ever having met a more bigoted idiot. Unless it was her mother.

Ignore the flap, gal. A writer must be someone who can produce a story that strikes a chord in the reader's heart. You & Steve have that. Those in pursuit of their 15 minutes of fame can never understand that it's not what they should be aiming at.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Are you making these cute color anime icons, or finding them? (Loved the Fruba "Trust me").

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Are you making these cute color anime icons, or finding them? (Loved the Fruba "Trust me").

Oh, let's see. I think I found a picture of Shigure and added the "Trust me." Herr Drosselmeyer, above, was found as he appears before you.

[(Anonymous)]

It's not just Artists.

If I had a dollar for every time I've had to (gently) tell someone with a piece of paper after completing a 6 week I.T. course that:
a) I have a Bachelar of Science in Computer Science which I got after 3 years of study,
b) they won't get a job in I.T. despite what they have been promised,
c) they've may have been riped off, and
d) no I'm not making this up or trying to keep them from achieving their dreams.

It can be either heart-breaking or irriating depending on the attitude.

Tricia

[bevhale.livejournal.com]

Thank you. You put it simply, honestly and well. The work is hard, the work doesn't pay much, and it's mostly going to offer rejection. This is true for all the arts and most of life. Write/act/paint/sing/dance/etc. because you want to/have to. Work hard. Always try to improve. Keep trying. There is no magic bullet, and there is no dark conspiracy. There is just the work.

[scaleslea.livejournal.com]

Sixth?: If they put half the effort into their writing that they put into their online diatribes, perhaps they'd be turning out a salable product?

And don't these complainers just end up self-publishing their anthology of slash-fic in the end?

Doc

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

And don't these complainers just end up self-publishing their anthology of slash-fic in the end?

Actually, no.

Some make the crossover from "unpub" to "pub," and continue to complain that those they perceive to be above them in the food chain are somehow sabotaging the work of those "lower down."

Some make the crossover from "unpub" to "pub," and also learn grace.

Some, of course, give up. I don't know how many of those persist in believing that their life has been blighted because they were never able to sell their short story/novel/whatever.