Writers, it’s time for us to talk money. Real talk.
Actually, how much you’re not making.
Writers are notoriously emotional creatures who, especially at the beginning of the publishing journey, make decisions based on gatekeepers: agents, legacy house acquiring editors, contest judges, peer critiques, writing coaches, mentors, creative writing professors. These individuals, in varying degrees, have sway in the real world, but their real currency is in emotions—is this good writing? Does it suck? Their opinion, backed by education or experience or readership, is what gives that emotional currency value.
To better understand writing as a business, let’s compare publishing to a bank.
In traditional publishing, backed by conglomerate companies who have dominated the book industry for decades, stacked the decks by manipulating bestseller rankings, and paid generously for exposure and buzzy reviews, the publishing house acts as a sort of FDIC. Writers are guaranteed money in exchange for their talent if the gatekeepers/tellers/loan officers deem the writer worthy of investment. There is a perceived value on the writing because it has passed through several gauntlets of emotional currency.
In the more recent self-publishing model, there is no FDIC-like backing—certainly no guarantees. The book-buying public becomes the gatekeepers. In exchange for talent, writers receive money based on the emotional currency that readers assign that writing inside a crowded marketplace. Transactionally, fairer than the traditional model. However, gatekeepers (now in the form of reviewers and now a metric ton of them!) still stand between a writer’s talent and real income.
Seeking employment as a writer for a company or institution brings us closer to a direct-pay model, but the writer still answers to the emotional gatekeepers of peers and supervisors.
What if there was another way? A way to become the bank?
No gatekeepers or tellers. No emotional currency to get in the way of your talent and receiving a fair wage. In our economic model, the writer becomes his or her own cryptocurrency of sorts—a direct transaction between the writer and the person desiring that writing. Transactionally, the most profitable model of writing that exists.
As a writer, I am my bank. No gatekeepers stand between my client and me. I benefit from the direct transaction between talent and fair wage, the most profitable model of writing that exists.
So, what is this cryptocurrency of writing?
Ghostwriting.
For this moment, shift your mindset to a writer capable of subtracting out the baggage of emotional currency. Publishing is a wonky marketplace, a hybrid model somewhere between business and perceived art. And for years, writers haven’t been getting a fair shake. Margins at publishing houses are notoriously tight. People are reading less than ever before, thus decreasing demand. Even if traditionally published, even at the quasi-successful threshold of mid-list, writers go into debt for the privilege for these gatekeepers to bestow emotional value on the currency of their talent. I know. Plenty of my peers who have experienced the emotional currency of success in publishing, the perceived value of an author who has it “made,” have reached out to me confidentially to learn how to climb out of the debt hole, stop the madness, and take control of their future writing income.
Wouldn’t taking a step off this crazy, non-profitable ride be amazing?
If you’re tired of giving everything you have to this passion and ending up with nothing profitable, you owe it to yourself to entertain a better way.
Ghostwriting isn’t for every writer. So much more goes into success than simply a digital transaction (not going to lie, those are sweet). Spend some time with me in February, and I’ll teach you a more profitable way to get up every morning and do what you love.
Write.
I know!! Amazing.
Class begins Tuesday.
FMI and registration: https://www.margielawson.com/product/feb-2022-establish-a-ghostwriting-business-monetize-your-talent/
