The only
free thing about writing is thinking.
Everything
else costs. Even just a legal pad and pencil. Let’s assume you have Time. All
that’s left is Money.
The time
you spent on all those short stories are going to need exposure. That’s tech
costs to maintain your own social identity through internet, computer, and
phone. It’s become impossible to be seen as anything without the constant warm
companion of a smart phone. A tablet is better, but only as a companion, not a
replacement for your usual equipment.
So you’ve
put the time in, arranged some words together, and now…now you’re ready to be
seen by the Global Reader. Now your costs start racking up.
Books on
writing, DVD lectures on writing, subscription sites, Plus Memberships; all
these costs to help build your knowledge base. Of course it would be so much
better, since you have Time, to do field research on your subject, which
entails purchasing a service or someone else’s time for information. If you
haven’t had the cops called on you.
Remember
those conferences, workshops, classes, and webinars you signed up for in
advance? They are not free. They may hand out three to five bullet points on
the introductory page, giving you a taste to get to you to come in for the hard
hit of knowledge. Contest fees suck many dry, and believe it or not, a couple
publications still only accept snail mail submissions, a reminder of the good
old days of when your expenses were paper, printer ink, envelopes, and postage.
Money
can afford you to be seen at these events. Where you make your first
impression. It was once described to me as speed dating. Rapid intimacy, but
both of you have already made your judgment in the first few seconds anyway.
Now they have “open mic,” where you get up on stage, like a tagged cow, and moo
for everyone to judge at once.
Now,
since you have Money, you’ve been subscribing to the essential magazines of the
trade. Plus, putting in an order to the publication your submitting to is
*always* recommended. These magazines still tell you to tailor your inquires to
agents. Study who they like, what kind of books they are passionate about
selling, and for fuck’s sake spell their name right. Copy and Paste has made
that brainless.
“Open
Mic” cuts through all that bullshit, into a whole new world of bullshit, where
you have just paid an entrance fee, and no doubt a reading fee, to get up on
stage and show that you are an attractive extrovert who occasionally writes.
Or, just
self publish. Cheap enough. Be your own PR Champion. Listings on sites, advertising
purchases, social media bumps, and now the Executive Memberships.
It would
be a whole lot easier to just buy an all-in-one package of self publishing that
includes hardbacks, paperbacks, PR material, and other Oscar Night Swag
Assortment.
For twelve
thousand dollars. Or thereabouts.
Then
there’s the rest of us.
After we
scratched the minutes away, sneaking in an Evernote here, jotting before the
shift starts there, dodging family, friends, and foes to make that precious
ass-in-chair time, we have something. Prospecting here and there, with finally
enough gold to take to town, the large hand of Capitalism stops what momentum
was built up.
No entry
fee? No payment. Exposure!
You can
forget all that other shit. Because your next sigh of relief will be when your
rent check clears, lunch money has been supplied for the week, and there is a
birthday coming up. Deadlines are the dreaded expensive Christmas shopping of the poor
writer.
Chin up!
So many authors were discovered when they were down on their worst luck.
I once
garnered a little hope from a YouTuber who has surpassed popularity and gone
right into firmament. Just an average guy, doing his average thing, for the
love of art. Until I looked into his career and saw he already knew people from
his work on a popular broadcast, and came from a middle class family who saw
him through to a completed college degree.
We can
discourse about socio-economic boundaries and inherent wealth, but we all know,
those who have money can have whatever they want. And those who want to write, money
makes all these things possible.
The only
currency the rest of us will be dealing in is love of writing. And because we,
as writers, have told the world that the only salve to our soul is the written
word, once more, we are encouraged with wisdom:
The only
thing standing in the way of you is you.
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