HOME Sunday March 25, 2001

During a recent workshop with our writers group, the old issue of "how do I profit from my work?" raised its misshapen head. Good luck to those who can make a little money, a lot of money, or even a fortune from their writing, but this is not going to happen for most of us. Certainly, very few people can make a comfortable living from this craft and, in most cases, their output reflects the nature of their income.  I am talking here specifically about "creative writing" at which phrase, the journeymen of the literary world will inevitably raise their eyes to heaven. Yet, is it not the dream of everyone to make a living from a job that they actually enjoy doing? Unfortunately, "creative writing", that is to say, writing done for effect, to give people pleasure, to make them more aware of the world and of the possibilities of life, is rarely financially rewarding. Why? Because, rather than wanting to be stimulated, people just prefer to be comfortable.  So, if no one will buy her/his writing, what is the "creative writer" to do? Give up writing? If that is the decision, then the reasons for writing in the first place have to be questioned. If money is the only reason, then the writer should study the market, see what is selling the best and write accordingly.  What are the other reasons for writing, other than money - which should really be the last reason, despite Samuel Johnson's typically bellicose remark.("Nobody but a blockhead writes for anything except money!")? Top of the list should be an actual liking for writing. In between that and the need to make money comes the desire to have other people read your productions, to let them see what you can do and to actually entertain them!  Given acceptance of the above, if you cannot sell your masterpieces, then the obvious thing to do is give them away. And the Web was tailor-made for this. It involves no extra cost. Free web servers abound on the Web. So choose the one that seems the best to suit you, create your web site (there are plenty of low-cost programs which will help you do this), and put your creations up there as pages, so that anyone passing by can look at them, or download them. You may get feedback, but it is better not to expect it. Still, you can rest assured that if people are visiting your site at all, some of them are actually reading your stuff. And isn't that the very basic reason for writing at all?