Recently, a fellow New Pulp author posted on Facebook saying that he was asked by someone if he could make a living off his writing and he tried not to laugh. Another New Pulp author said that he has family members who are convinced he’s sitting on mountains of cash from his writing career and is lying when he says otherwise.
It’s an unfortunate truth that the vast majority of us writing in New Pulp still have to have day jobs, because we do not make enough off of our writing to live off of. Even if I were making enough money from my writing to live off of, I’d still need a day job for visa purposes (the joys of dealing with the Japanese immigration system).
So when my fellow writers tell me they aren’t making enough to live off of, I nod my head in sad agreement. But what gets me is that invariably there’s someone who will come along with the “true writers write for the joy of writing, not for the money.”
That kind of mentality drives me nuts.
I’m going to post this quote from an interview with Harlan Ellison:
They always want the writer to work for nothing. And the problem is there’s so goddamn many writers who have no idea that they’re supposed to be paid every time they do something. They do it for nothing!
I love writing. Novels, novellas, short stories, comics, film and TV scripts—I love it. If I made enough money off writing to live comfortably, then I’d quit my day job so fast, it’d make your head spin. But the notion that artists don’t or shouldn’t care about money, that they’re “sell-outs” if they use their art to earn a paycheck, is just flat-out nonsense and it’s something I’m sick and tired of hearing.
If a carpenter loves his job, would you expect him to build you a table for free? If a mechanic loves his job, would you expect him to fix your car for free? If a chef loves his job, would you expect him to cook your food for free?
Absolutely not. So why is it with the arts there’s always this idea of “well if you’re a true artist, you’ll do it because you love it, not because you want to get paid.”
Fuck. That.
If you think I’m not trying to build a career out of my writing, a career that pays the bills and provides for my family, then you are out of your freaking mind. If I didn’t want money for my writing, I would only write fanfiction. If I didn’t want money for my writing, I would post up all my stuff on Wattpad and not even bother with publication. If I didn’t want money for my writing, I wouldn’t pay for cover design.
Money isn’t the only reason why I write, but it absolutely is a factor. Anyone who sells their writing and says otherwise is flat-out lying. And it’s because we’ve built up this image in our culture of the noble starving artist, slaving away at his craft not because he’s trying to enrich his soul instead of his bankbook.
Kill the starving artist. Stop perpetuating that stereotype. Because it’s that stereotype that leads to people thinking they can exploit writers and artists by getting them to do work for free.
Writers may not be laying brick or performing life-saving operations or stopping violent crimes or anything like that. But it’s still work. It’s a valuable service that people need. Writers who make a living off their art aren’t whores or sell-outs—they’re smart.
It’s not just New Pulp writers that aren’t making a living off their writing, it’s writers in general. The vast majority of authors, even those published by the Big Five, hold down day jobs to make ends meet. However, there are exceptions, and if a writer doesn’t expect and/or demand to get paid for his work he’ll never be one of those exceptions. This might be an interesting topic to explore on an Exploding Typewriter.
That’s a good suggestion, thanks Joel. I’ll take that into consideration.
I’ve written for free before and will no doubt do so again. But that’s on my terms and for my own reasons. I consider it an insult when somebody asks me to write something for them and just assumes that I’m doing it “for the exposure” which at this point in my career if I don’t have that exposure I probably ain’t never gonna get it.
Agreed. If I write for someone else, it’s because I’m getting something in return.
So true. Like Derrick, I too have written for free before, but there was always a method to my madness. My first produced screenplay was a freebie. Why? I needed experience and that was a way to get it. Thankfully, it was also a fun experience. Most of the writing I do is for pay, or the hope of good royalties when it comes to my novels. There are still bills to be paid.
Yeah, I’ve done free stuff as well, but like you said, there’s a reason behind it.
Oh, yes. Always a reason.
Excellent post Percival, and absolutely true. Writing is still work. It just happens to be work we all love doing. We should all be paid for it and greatly paid. It takes me on average two months to grind out a 65K word novel. Most of that time is spent figuring out where the story is going, and then putting it down on the monitor screen. Yes, there is joy in writing. If you don’t ;love it, don’t do it. But you damn well’d better expect to be reimbursed for it, and if you do not, (And it’s not for the reasons Bobby and Derrick mentioned above) you better, like you said, go back to fanfic.
New Pulp has such a small audience. Worse, most ofthem are luddites who cling to their dead trees and refuse to embrace modern technology, ie ereaders. If we as new pulpsters want to sell more we need to make new pulp mainstream and show our fellow pulp lovers e is good.