I publish a lot of my fiction online, for free. I make a few bob here and there, not much. Nowhere near enough to pay any bills.
I publish free because I want people to read me. I don’t have the publishing skills, the marketing skills, though I think I have the writing skills, to make it stick as a paying endeavour.
However.
If you buy a story, or a novel, on Amazon or elsewhere, the deal is you pay for the enjoyment, the pleasure, the delight of reading somebody else’s efforts. You cannot then return it just because it wasn’t what you expected, even though Amazon’s ebook policy allows you to do just that.
You can’t return a physical book to a high street bookshop just because you think it’s crap. I’d have had money back for Stephen King’s The Stand if you could, and that didn’t happen, sad to relate.
Now here’s where it’s going. People on the internet are saying they should not have to pay for fiction on the internet. Why?
Here’s the alleged reasoning.
‘Well you didn’t make anything, did you? It was all in your head, you didn’t make anything, did you? All you did was that you thought it up.’
What the f*** are these f******* on about?
Let me give you an example. Here are two sentences I used in both a novel, and as part of a short story derived from it.
‘You need to hear that, a Frenchman and a Russian talking Spanish, but you still wouldn’t believe it. It sounded like a conversation between two Pentecostalists speaking in tongues just before swooning.’
I think that’s pretty funny, myself. But let’s look at this.
I had the idea for these lines for a pretty good while. But guess what? Guess how long it took me to craft these mere 32 words. Go on. Take a guess. Go on. I dare you. I double-dare you. Tell me how long I take to get it exactly right. Exactly how I wanted the characters to have been behaving, how they express themselves, both the fictional narrator and the fictional combatants.
This took over four hours.
I’m an amateur. The pros may take less time, they may take more. But trust me, there is no way on this earth that just imagining something is not real work, that it does not add value, that it should not be paid for!
Writing adds value to thought and imagination.
Cough the dosh, and shut the f*** up.
jane Wheeler said:
Heres one for you Duncan, you’ll love this! Askacorner.com Full of really icky questions and answers about death, surely a few blogs in there for you Your welcome!
>
nobodysreadingme said:
Can’t resolve the link…
franhunne4u said:
If thinking things up is not proper working, then architects and scientists won’t get paid anymore. Or any other creative worker.
nobodysreadingme said:
Yep
ridicuryder said:
NRM,
Following the logic “you didn’t make anything…it’s all in your head” would mean unpaid work for around half of western civilization. Can you come up with a list of jobs / professions where very little value (or sometimes negative value) is added by paper pushers, market manipulators and the like?
RR
nobodysreadingme said:
Not off the top of my head, no. 🙂
Trent Lewin said:
Yeah to say that is should be free ignore the sheer effort. I have to say, I’m a bit surprised by your four hours to write that one little bit, I can’t seem to spend that much time on anything, ever… just where I am in life, I guess. But the effort and the imagination and the creativity are the things, and those are not easy.
nobodysreadingme said:
It’s hard to imagine, but it was within the context of the novel, which meatamorphosed into a short story, and it had to be spot on. https://nobodysreadingme.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/speaking-in-tongues-tipsylit-prompted-speaking-with-another-voice/
Trent Lewin said:
I remember this one, had a look again. I admire your conviction that things at times need to be spot on. The ‘Trent Lewin’ approach appears to be one of finding a random hour or 1.5 hour slot and vomiting words onto a screen, many of which are incomprehensible at first but with one cursory edit (maybe) possibly a little less so. I have great respect for people who think about their writing as a craft, and haven’t come close to being able to convince myself to do the same.
nobodysreadingme said:
I generally take a swashbuckling approach and just write, but now and then a bit of crafting doesn’t go amiss. It took me a long time to get the relationship between Rick and Charlie right, but when I’d done that the stories/novel almost wrote themselves
Trent Lewin said:
Can you tell me more about the novel? Where’s it at?
nobodysreadingme said:
https://www.wattpad.com/story/7477422-charlie-and-me-the-saga-continues
Kate Wally said:
I don’t understand why there’s this notion writing occurs by some kind of osmosis where you’re saturated with words in your head and they just fall onto the paper in brilliant succession. I’m sure it is easier for some writers than others (without a doubt) but it remains time-consuming hard work which requires a lot of self-discipline and focus.
I don’t need to tell you that. Sorry. It makes me angry. I have friends who are writers and I know how hard they work simply trying to get published. Even for folk, like yourself, who blog regularly on top of their writing schedule is amazing.
Don’t worry about the ignorant few. Most get it.
nobodysreadingme said:
If I choose to publish for free that’s my decision, yes. But I don’t want some numbnuts telling me I *can’t* be paid if I ask for it, because I don’t deserve to be paid for not making anything.
Welcome to my blog, by the way. Please remain seated and keep your arms inside the car at all times.
Kate Wally said:
I concur.
And I’m strapped in.
Go.
nobodysreadingme said:
I do hope you’re no fan of the Hemsleys, because I give them a hard time tomorrow. 😉