"Integrity" Is Expensive When You're a Writer

I've lost track of the number of times I've seen someone turn up their nose at a project, or even at another writer, and said they would never do that. "I have integrity," they often say, as if that explains everything.

Ugh, you got paid to do a job? No thanks.

The longer I've seen this sort of behavior go on, the more it sounds like those people who look down on garbage men or sex workers. Their jobs are necessary, but for some reason the person looking in from the outside feels they're somehow above that kind of work.

As a writer, I can tell you that you are under no obligation to accept a job that comes across your desk. But I can tell you that if you're super picky about your jobs you either need to have a safety net you're already relying on, or you need to be a damn master of the things you are willing to write. Because it is unicorn-level rare for a writer to pick the one thing they're willing to write, and then achieve success in that one field without ever budging from the path they've set. And as I said in If You're An Author You Can't Afford To Put All Your Eggs in One Basket, there's always the chance the bottom drops out of that one thing you've set your sights on, leaving you in the lurch.

I've Done My Share of Dirty Jobs

For those who haven't read my archive, I've done my share of jobs I didn't particularly care for in the past as a writer. I've written ad copy, I've been a journalist, I've ghostwritten stories, and I've published novels. In that time, I've gotten some absolute stinkers on my desk.

Some examples include:

- Editing poorly written slash fiction where the author refused to make any meaningful alterations, or to hear any criticism before self-publishing the work.
- Writing ad copy for what I'm quite certain was a mail-order-bride website.
- Writing for a gaming client who was veering dangerously close to the intellectual property of an existing game whose lawyers ate raw meat like him for breakfast.
- Covering topics for a "men's magazine" that catered to the worst stereotypes of the alpha-male-frat segment.
- Ghostwriting fill-in-the-blank romance for a mass-production house.

And those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Find me at a con sometime, and I'll tell you a few horror stories.

In addition to those bad jobs, though, I've been a part of projects that were honestly a lot of fun, but which people have looked down on me for. I've written scripts for adult comics, for example, and I was a regular contributor to a romance company that specialized in "happy endings" in every sense of that term. I've reviewed schlock horror, and I've worked on all sorts of low-brow productions over the years.

When I set out to be a writer, I wanted to write books. That is still, to some extent, my goal. It's why I finally put out my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife not too long ago, and why I released my latest short story collection The Rejects this year. However, I've got bills to pay in the meantime, and that means I need to supplement my income with basically whatever I can get my hands on.

The Price of Saying "No"

With all of this said, it's important to understand your own limits, and to stay true to yourself as a creator. But at the same time, it's equally important to keep a realistic eye on the market, and on your own capabilities. Because it would be nice if every project you ever took on was creatively fulfilling, enjoyable to work on, and came with a living wage attached to it... but you're generally lucky if you can get one of those labels to apply to a project, much less all three.

Particularly in the straits a lot of us are working through these days, it's important to remember that at the end of the day, you need to make sure you're reaching your goals, and paying your bills. Because integrity is a lovely thing to have... but at the end of the day integrity buys you about as many groceries as exposure does.

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

To Make A Living As A Writer, Try Broadening Your Horizons

Every writer who's ever put words on the page has had the same fantasy. In fact, if you've had it, you've probably guessed it based on that sentence alone. Just so we're all on the same page, though, the fantasy is for you to be allowed to write what you love, and for those projects to pay you a living wage.

Which is different from a killing wage. Significantly different.

It doesn't matter if you're a novelist or a script writer, a master of horror or a weaver of romance. Whatever your area of expertise, and your preferred type of project, the goal is to reach the point where you don't have to worry about taking a break for lunch. Where you can wake up whenever you damn well please, sit down at your desk, and focus completely on the story you want to tell.

Some of us get to that point sooner than others. Some of us are never going to get there. Which is why this little piece of advice is one that I feel compelled to give. Are you listening? Good, because...

You Can Write More Than One Thing

When I was a much younger man, I thought that the only way to make a living as a writer was to be a novelist. I wanted that job bad enough to taste it, and if I'm honest the taste has never gone away. It gave me a lot of practice writing fiction, and when I was just starting out I even managed to win the odd contest or two. It wasn't until I got into college that I realized there was more to the world of writing than being a novelist. There was, for example, my school newspaper.

Hey, you need to start somewhere.

It doesn't sound like much, but short of an occasional gift certificate or tiny check, the paper represented the first paycheck I'd ever earned with the written word. It wasn't enough to do much at $5 an article, but it was a proof-of-concept. It was real evidence that there was a market for my skills. More importantly, it made me realize that I could still work on my stories, while earning money writing something else as well. There was no need to drive a delivery van, or sit around in a security shack, when I could just write instead. This knowledge didn't shift my personal focus from the goal of writing fiction for a living, but it did make me re-evaluate the idea that I had to have a day job I didn't like while I was working on said focus. After all, if there was one opportunity out there, then there had to be more... didn't there?

There was, as it turned out. What I hadn't realized was there is text all over the world, and writing is a skill that translates pretty well from one project to another. I made contact with other local newspapers to get work as a stringer and occasional feature writer. I managed to wrangle a short-term position writing articles for a men's magazine. I wrote ad copy for catalogs, and product descriptions for websites. I joined websites where I wrote reams of articles, earning up-front payments, as well as earning royalties and revenue share on some of my work. In the past few years I've been running this blog, as well as my gaming blog Improved Initiative, and I've worked with a lot of publishers who needed help producing rules and mechanics for tabletop roleplaying games. And somewhere in there I've published two dozen short stories, and completed at least one novel-length manuscript.

The result of all that work? Well, I'm certainly not in that six-figure range. Hell, some years I'm barely in the 5-figure range. However, I've made a lot of contacts, and I've learned a lot about the business of being a professional writer. More importantly, though, I've managed to pay rent on time, and buy the occasional cheeseburger, with nothing more than word count. Not because I kept my nose to the grindstone, and refused to step away from the one true calling I felt for writing books, but because I recognized that I had to do more if I expected to put "writer" on the profession line for my taxes.

That's the secret I would share with anyone who wants to claw their way up to that final plateau. The day might come when you get that book deal, or you self-publish the next big series that locks you into a bigger tax bracket for the next ten years. But between now and then, you've got bills to pay. So why not use the skill you've been sharpening so hard for so long?

Lastly, if you're looking for places you can start making a living as a writer, I'll save you some searching. Just check out Where To Find Online Writing Jobs, and Make Money Writing (By Joining Infobarrel.com).

As always, thanks for checking in with The Literary Mercenary! If you want to help support me (and possibly get me a little closer to that future where all I do is write blogs and books), then consider stopping by my Patreon page to become a patron today! If you'd prefer to get regular updates on my latest and greatest, then follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter!