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just what the world needs: more me
At this very moment you can find at the otherwise excellent fantasy-writing website Magical Words a guest blog post by moi, complete with comments . . . an' more comments . . . an' . . . an' . . . well, everything, really. The title of my rant is There are Far Too Many "Writers", and you can find it in its full fulminating splendour here.
Big thanks, obviously, to the MW crew (especially Stuart Jaffe, who set this up) for letting me pollute their bandwidth.
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All I have is an eBook-only contract with a small publisher to my name (so far).
I understand I'm about as low as you can get on the publishing ladder without being self-published, but that's okay, as far as I'm concerned, I are a writer :P
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Yes, Jon, but you're also a punk rock icon and groupie magnet, are you not? Unless I have the wrong Jon Gibbs, that is.
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Lol, if by 'punk' you mean 'sings out of tune' and by 'magnet' you mean 'attracted objects when performing live' (usually ice cubes, courtesy of my old gran), then you have the right one :)
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Man, you rock.
I do? I must remember to tell my wife . . .
I remember reading your "Why Self-Publishing Hurts Real Writers" way back when and thinking roughly the same about yourself . . . not the bit about telling your wife . . .
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I think it's about context. At a social gathering, that question comes with an implication about occupation, so saying you're a writer when you haven't earned anything from writing seems weird. (Unless you're a self-funded retiree or such.) In that situation, I'm a student.
But in other situations, it's a valid identifiers for non-professionals. If talking about arts & crafts, about skill sets, about.... well, writing is what I do when I'm not glaring at assignments and job applications. It occupies most of my time, it influences my world view and it literally keeps me sane. To say otherwise, would involve some weird self-denial that would interest psychologists no end. OTOH I can't identify as a photographer, even though I obviously spend a lot of time with a camera, I do look at things from that point of view and I have made more money from selling photographs than writing. Possibly because the taking of photos is just part of bigger process. It's not me. (Although I did add both to my Twitter bio last week, along with supergoddess.)
But saying that when I'm asked what I do in a social situation would be weird. (Although from the tax office's POV I am a writer, as I have an ABN (that is, I'm registered as a sole trader and have a tax number to go with my company) with two attached "jobs" so... )
On self-publishing, I have come to think that if all someone wants is to see their book in print or make their writing available to friend, they should be able to to, and without being ripped off. Rather than forcing them into a "career", which just fills up slush piles and creates frustration. As long as that comes with realistic expectations of what they'll be ending up with. Having legitimate and relatively easy ways to self-publish will put a bite on vanity scammers too. (OK I'm optimistic, but many of them rely on ignorance and writer frustration.)
Being optimistic, I think that getting the idea out that anyone can produce a book, will also stop readers assuming that anything that is in book form is worth reading. So maybe I'm not really disagreeing with you. That IS the way the industry is going, and we need to find a way to deal with it. The product doesn't help. It's obvious is you look at a painting whether it's any good. I supposed we can look at the music industry -- after all anyone with a microphone can now produce an album. OTOH it's always fairly obvious if someone can manage something resembling singing. People's ability to judge the quality of book from the first page is obviously in doubt. Education?
Anyway, being almost November, I'm off to encourage another year's worth of wannabe authors.
(Also, I think the original meaning for writer is "one who can write" which might not be what you had in mind :)
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I think the original meaning for writer is "one who can write" which might not be what you had in mind
Um, I discuss this distraction in para 12.
More later -- I'm just about to shut down for the night . . . so I can spend some time thinking about which Northern Hemisphere team is going to win the Ashes, and by how big a margin.
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Ref: your closing line
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I certainly wouldn't describe myself as a "writer" and I have two published books to my credit. I don't make my living at the trade. Unlike, you (or the late Robert Graves, whose "Occupation: Writer" is an excellent piece, I think).