Books & Money

There's a great discussion going on over at "Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent," exploring how authors will make money in the era of eBooks, piracy, etc. Since I'm interested in writing and economics, the intersection of the two topics has been fascinating.

His posting and the subsequent comments have got me thinking about my own literary endeavors, such as they are, and the financial aspects of the whole thing. Sometime soon, I'm going to write a post about why I wrote my books (hint - it wasn't for the money). But for now, let me just say this:

Just because you wrote a book and people read it doesn't mean you're entitled to make a living off that book. It's great if you can, but it's not guaranteed. The market does not owe you a living (even a modest living) doing the things you want to do. So let's not whine about how hard it is to make money as a writer.

Also, there's nothing wrong with an artist having a day job. Summer Pierre made that point so much better than I ever could. In fact, I personally think there's something profoundly right about having a day job.

Side Note: Man Nathan Bransford gets a lot of comments on his blog. I guess that shouldn't be surprising - he's an agent, and has a flock of aspiring authors (myself included) who want to be noticed and who don't mind writing stuff...