With alarming frequency people pop up in Authonomy with the notion that writing should be commercial. In my case it's teaching one's grandmother how to suck eggs and, quite frankly, granny is here to tell you to shut up and stop being so naive.
I am a commercial writer.
Commercial writing is writing for money. Cash. Hard cash. Stuff you can take to a nearby shop and hand over the counter in exchange for Marathon bars and toilet rolls.
Commercial writing is finding clients who consider you have enough ability to put pixels to page to satisfy their requirements and who are willing to pay for you to do so.
For the past several months, every penny I've earned has been from my writing. I have no other source of income. My yacht as yet sails upon distant seas but it's no longer a struggle to keep myself fed and the electricity on. Things are getting better.
What I am not writing - though I may turn my hand to it for a lark and see what happens - is 'commercial fiction'. I can't think of anything more ridiculous than sitting down and writing 80,000 words for no particular client on the 0.01% chance that I can subsequently find someone who is willing to reimburse me, or see that I am reimbursed, to a per-word payment level commensurate with what I'm earning from other sources.
So yes, quite right. What you will see in these hallowed pages, my fictional offering to the world, is literary. It's what I write for pleasure. It's self-expression. It paints a view of the world as I see it or extends upon ideas I find humorous or interesting. It is not 'commercial' and I don't expect to earn a penny out of it, (though of course I'd be happy as a pig in a figure of speech if it were discovered, appreciated and made me immensely rich).
Now here's the bad news. Your fiction isn't 'commercial' either, not unless it's earning you back a per-word payment that makes it so and, if it's doing that, chances are you wouldn't be here. Chances are, when it comes to fiction, you're exactly the same as me. A wannabe author who's writing and hoping with very, very little prospect of success, even if your book does contain vampires, handsome heroes and men with long white beards who can blast orcs at 20 paces with a wave of their staff.
So... cut it out, okay? You are not some clever sod who's got the sense to write genre fiction because you're all clued up about the world and where the money lies while idiots like me write stuff that'll never sell. And if you think you are, trust me. All you really are is a naive dork without much of a clue about anything.
And every time you make your inane proclamations, it shows.
Posted: 29/07/2012 05:36:12
Last Edit: 29/07/2012 05:38:36 by Pete Marchetto
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