What I was trying to say was that books are products as well as being the objects of my (and many others’) love. And that that isn’t a contradiction in terms.

Oops, i was just reading over what I’d typed, and I guess multi-tasking isn’t exactly the best way to go when trying to think. I meant to say that a lot of people just want to get into the industry to make money, a concept possibly helped along by JK Rowling’s amazing rise to fame. But like, yeah, a lot of the people already in it are real and genuine (sorry if I’ve accidentally insulted anyone

I’ve met quite a few people who’ve claimed that they want to publish a book so that they can get a lot of money, and have that as their main motivation. there are actually quite a few young writers in forums that say that as well, which sort of takes away from the love of literature.

On the other hand, could big chain bookstores not be considered the same way? not that they’re necessarily bad or anything, but big stores such as Barnes and noble, chapters, online bookstores, etc. are causing a lot of smaller, privately-owned bookstores to go out of business. While we’re on the subject, there was this news article about how big bookstores were severely discounting the 7th harry potter book before it’s release (i.e. preorder) but smaller bookstores were opting to not even stock the book because it couldn’t keep up with the falling demands, and apparently it would’ve been cheaper for the small book stores to just go and buy the book from a supermarket to sell, rather than straight from the publisher.

it’s like how in stories, sometimes there’s cozy little bookstores where all the people there actually know and love the books they sell and have a connection with their job, whereas that’s sometimes more rare. although it goes both ways, i guess, because there are also a lot of really devoted people in the industry.

So, yeah. that sort of just came out wrong.

(Please give me my caps on nerdfighter, blog overlord)

Holly is wise.

Kadie-wa: can you love the writing but still like the money that you get out of it?

Sure. Money is helpful for food and shelter and paying bills and all that. I don’t write books for free!

All I’m saying is going into writing with the aim of making lots of money is crazy. Most writers I know don’t do it full time and make less than ten thousand dollars a year (from their writing).

Corey: I worry though that the education system may be cutting tomorrow’s top authors at the seedling phase.

I so wouldn’t worry about that. Every school visit we do there are kids desperate to become writers. From sixth grade through to twelfth.

It’s definitely more sensible to think of writing as something you do in your spare time. Very few people ever make a living at it. They don’t now and they didn’t in the past. Same for actors, painters, musicians, dancers and any other kind of creative type you care to name.

The full-time writers I do know all had other careers previously. I’ve never met anyone who has only worked as a writer of fiction.

The urge to create is not going to disappear no matter what kids are taught in school.

Personally I think some of the best work comes from writing as a past-time (no offense to you careerists!), but in our blazingly-quick society, it might become a hobby that’s just too involved to break your career stride to dabble in…

“it’s a widget.”

“Are the Twilight books the new Harry Potter?”

i dunno. A hundred and fifty thousand books sold in a day is pretty amazing, but it isn’t eight million books in a day.

Hmmm. I was kind of arguing the opposite. I don’t know a single writer or editor or sales rep or bookseller who started out in this industry to make scads of money.

What I was trying to say was that books are products as well as being the objects of my (and many others’) love. And that that isn’t a contradiction in terms.

but yeah, publishing is just a industry and despite wanting to think otherwise, a lot of people are just in it for the money rather than the love of literature.

I have a question. Being an author, do you ever get writer’s block…because some people say it’s real and others say it’s not. just wonderin!

p.s. this is orangedragonfly. but i have a new blog and a new email address, so i decided to shorten my name…..

http://www.teachingbooks.net/pronunciations.cgi

One more thing I would add: it’s far, far, *far* better for authors to embrace the business and understand the long odds against their own financial success than to embrace the fantasy that all of these big, bad facts of publishing don’t apply to them. It doesn’t work to say “mean ol’ reality!” and stomp off in a huff. (well, I mean, yeah, you can *do* that . . . but what does it get you?)