I belong in the service of the Queen
Thursday, December 10th, 2009 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniSigh.
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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-11 07:44 am (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-11 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-14 09:18 pm (UTC)That probably didn't last.
I stopped at my BFA. Wanted to write books, not theses.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-11 08:59 pm (UTC)What's an MFA?
no subject
Date: 2009-12-11 09:22 pm (UTC)Master (of) Fine Arts, a secondary academic degree.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-11 10:22 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-14 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-14 09:28 pm (UTC)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.