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Apparently horror writers are having a big blowout over Paid Markets (R with circle) versus FTL markets. Which one makes you a "real writer" or a "sell out" or someone who "lacks talent." I'm someone who has to constantly check myself to make sure I'm not acting like a complete D-bag over who is a Real Writer (TM) or not, and I find this irksome as all hell.
When I first started writing shorts with the intention of wide release, I was willing to give stuff away to FTL markets. I just wanted to be read and seen. But novels? No. I'm only giving those free on special occasions, or to reviewers, and with the hope that doing so will garner good reviews and increase sales. Having done that, I've still never come close to earning min wage in terms of hours spent on a book versus money earned. Does that mean I'm not a Real Writer? To some, yes. I find this odd, because other writers know you can write your ass off, create something great, and still make less than $1,000 on it. I never heard huge authors bashing small authors for the ways in which they try to boost sales--but I hear non-writers bash active writers for their marketing efforts all the time.
I've been hearing the argument that writers giving away their work hurts writers who are selling. I can't imagine that this is true. Books just don't work that way. If you enjoy an author, you're not going to skip their next book because someone you've never heard of has a book available for free. By that logic, people who love to fuck are taking money away from prostitutes.
Writers who want to be paid for their work are not "passionless sellouts" who "only do it for the money." Nor are those who give their work away "talentless losers who couldn't sell a story if their lives depended on it." I strenuously hope I've never sounded like this big a D-bag when talking about other writers (who are not Stephanie Meyer or EL Fudge or whatever her inner goddess name is). But I probably have at some point. *ahem* fanfic *ahem*
In the end, I think it's up to the writer to decide what their work is worth. Yeah, that is bound to result in wild over and under-pricing. I've read great stuff on Kindle that cost me nothing. I've also seen Facebookers who can't even put a sentence together selling their debut books on Smashwords for $75. Well, I don't know that they're selling them, but they are listing them at prices only a mother would spend. Like most things in life--we should all be allowed to do what we want and leave everyone else out of it. I won't hold my breath though.
While I have your attention, I've been listing my own shorts at Amazon for a mere 99 cents. Available now are:
The Growlers: A fast-food zombie tale that ties in to my novel, The Finster Effect.
Whitman, I Ain't: A first-person narrative of a school shooter.
Trabajando Alegre: One of my personal favorite shorts. This one is about a new employment program designed to help poverty stricken minorities. People refer to this as a satire, but I think it's just straight-up horror.
More are coming soon. I'm mainly waiting for H to finish the covers.
When I first started writing shorts with the intention of wide release, I was willing to give stuff away to FTL markets. I just wanted to be read and seen. But novels? No. I'm only giving those free on special occasions, or to reviewers, and with the hope that doing so will garner good reviews and increase sales. Having done that, I've still never come close to earning min wage in terms of hours spent on a book versus money earned. Does that mean I'm not a Real Writer? To some, yes. I find this odd, because other writers know you can write your ass off, create something great, and still make less than $1,000 on it. I never heard huge authors bashing small authors for the ways in which they try to boost sales--but I hear non-writers bash active writers for their marketing efforts all the time.
I've been hearing the argument that writers giving away their work hurts writers who are selling. I can't imagine that this is true. Books just don't work that way. If you enjoy an author, you're not going to skip their next book because someone you've never heard of has a book available for free. By that logic, people who love to fuck are taking money away from prostitutes.
Writers who want to be paid for their work are not "passionless sellouts" who "only do it for the money." Nor are those who give their work away "talentless losers who couldn't sell a story if their lives depended on it." I strenuously hope I've never sounded like this big a D-bag when talking about other writers (who are not Stephanie Meyer or EL Fudge or whatever her inner goddess name is). But I probably have at some point. *ahem* fanfic *ahem*
In the end, I think it's up to the writer to decide what their work is worth. Yeah, that is bound to result in wild over and under-pricing. I've read great stuff on Kindle that cost me nothing. I've also seen Facebookers who can't even put a sentence together selling their debut books on Smashwords for $75. Well, I don't know that they're selling them, but they are listing them at prices only a mother would spend. Like most things in life--we should all be allowed to do what we want and leave everyone else out of it. I won't hold my breath though.
While I have your attention, I've been listing my own shorts at Amazon for a mere 99 cents. Available now are:
The Growlers: A fast-food zombie tale that ties in to my novel, The Finster Effect.
Whitman, I Ain't: A first-person narrative of a school shooter.
Trabajando Alegre: One of my personal favorite shorts. This one is about a new employment program designed to help poverty stricken minorities. People refer to this as a satire, but I think it's just straight-up horror.
More are coming soon. I'm mainly waiting for H to finish the covers.
