Hot, Hot In The Summertime And Hot Under The Collar!
But enough about that, Let's talk about making writing sales and something that makes me a little hot under the collar, as well. The problem these days isn't that sales are so hard to make, but the pay we're getting for them when we do. It's decreasing. Even as SFWA raised the minimum requirements for story sales per word a while back, authors, across the board, are under increasing pressure to take less for their work. Reason? Competition; there is a lot of it. And that's fair. That's the free market system at work, and I don't dispute it, just because it isn't going the way I'd like it to. However, there is another thing having an impact, and I feel wrongly so.
You see, I have a friend in England who recently bought a Sony e-reader, and was amazed at how much was free on the internet in the way of books. He is known for being cheap by many people, so this was a wonderful surprise for him, not having to pay for anything. He even made the rather cutting remark to me that I must be having a hard time making sales when there is so much available for free.I informed him that this wasn't the case, because the vast majority of items free in the literary way were books no longer under copyright, or just poor quality ones. Truth is, if authors are willing to consistently give their work away free, then it probably means they can't sell it. If they can't sell it, then perhaps there is something wrong with it. And having checked out some of those free books for myself, this does seem to hold true. I'm not talking about the classics here, but new free stuff, and I mean "stuff."
Mind you, I'm not saying that authors shouldn't "donate" the occasional story to a good cause. The result is often kind, generous, and helpful, as with charity anthologies and such, and it does give the author sometimes much needed exposure. But those people who write "just for the fun of it," all the time, and who say they don't care about any monetary proceeds and just give it away consistently, in my opinion are not helping the author community as a whole. They justify this way of doing things, as their right, their privilege to give away what they write if they so choose. But, most of them probably have day jobs, if this is the case, and I just wonder how they'd like it if we other authors, the ones who feel we should be paid for our blood, sweat, and tears of writing, went into their employer and offered to replace what they do for free! I'm betting they wouldn't like it! Not at all!Why? Because their job is their real livelihood and they need it to pay their bills, make a decent living. Well, you know what, for many of us authors, writing is our real job, too! And we consider ourselves (many of us), professionals. And as any "professional" lawyer, doctor, engineer, nurse, teacher, or professor will tell you, if it isn't for charity, then don't give it away free! Again, it's our livelihood. We need to make a living, too!
However, again, having read some of the free stories that are not classics out there, I do understand why they are free. So for me, at least, I don't consider them a great threat to us who wish to be paid an honest wage for our work. My only concern is that we may end up with so many rank amateurs who want to give away their poor quality work free, that the discerning reader simply can't find what's good anymore, can't wade through the dross to find the gem, because it is buried in an ever-growing mass of what's bad. And that would be too bad. And if any of these "amateurs" disagree with me, and think it is their right to give it away free, just let me know where you work for real, please! I'll be sure and offer my services as your "free" replacement, and we can see how you like that! I'm betting, in most cases, for those who need their jobs, they wouldn't like it at all, and rightly so. But their employers might like the idea. They always do!So, please keep this in mind when you decide just to keep posting your work free to anyone who wants it and to do it all the time. It may be your right to do so, and I won't contest that, but those rights are reciprocal, baby!
And I'll exercise mine, too, as far as I'm concerned! When it's your livelihood at stake, you may then think a little differently! And again, I'm not talking about donating work to charities -- that's in a good cause, but I do object to wholesale giveaways on a consistent basis. I mean, I don't mind competition, but FAIR competition! No matter how good something may be, it is hard for it to compete with something that is free!
Again, my work sells, so part of me just says, to heck with it, let it go. But another part says that these freebies are glutting up the system, making it harder and harder for the reader to find what's really good. Let's just hope they don't ultimately give up and just settle for garbage, because there is a lot of that out there!
That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it! After all, that's my "right," too, isn't it? And oddly, I just gave it away for free! But then, opinions are usually worth what you pay for them. Get it?
