4 ms·
> The number of people willing to put the amount of time and effort required into writing a book without a profit motive is very low. I wonder how did you arri
by lstodd 6y ago
> The number of people willing to put the amount of time and effort required into writing a book without a profit motive is very low.
I wonder how did you arrive at that.
It's sort of common knowledge that only 1-2% of books written will net any sort of profit, so one might just as well write for free. As many, many people do, and outperform the for-profit writers too, on quality.
- AmericanChopper 6y agoAspiring writers aspire to make a living off their work. It might be an entirely misguided career path, but they’re not aspiring to be destitute their entire life. Remove ownership of their own work, and the illusion that they’ll ever be able to earn a living from it disappears. The only way to get to the point where you earn a living as a writer, or actor, or film maker, or painter... is to start off by doing it without getting paid. The fact that most people ultimately fail isn’t evidence that they’re not interested in succeeding.
- beering 6y ago> Aspiring writers aspire to make a living off their work. Aspiring writers can aspire for fame, an audience, enthusiastic reviews, a platform, or loyal fans. Do those necessarily put food on the table? No, but many people happily write, perform, paint, etc. knowing that it won't pay the bills. The idea that everyone is in it for the money is a blanket statement that I'm not sure is even true for most creatives. You can make a separate claim about whether artists should be able to financially support so that they can make art full time, but that's quite a different claim.