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/lit/ - Literature

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4511245 No.4511245 [Reply] [Original]

If you have ambitions to be a writer, would you mind putting out marketable, perhaps-low-quality work under your name out every month or so in order to be able to support yourself solely as a writer?

In another way, would you consider somebody who were to do this to be a sell-out? And even if you personally wouldn't, how much do you think it could damage a writer's reputation (due to snobbery) down the line if they did this?

>> No.4511255

That is what is called a working writer. Actually being a working writer is a harder thing to be than someone that writes on the side. Also whoring is harder to do today because there are no magazines looking to use fiction as filler.

>> No.4511260

a niggaz gotta eat

anyway some writers work better under pressure and deadlines (somebody should lock GRRM in a room without food till he finishes TWOW)

>> No.4511261

balzac

>> No.4511298

>>4511245

Since ebooks, many entrepreneurs sell books themselves for profit and numbers and not because they actually want to be a writer. There might be a risk that people start perceiving anybody who tries to sell books for profit to be one of these guys, even if they do love writing too.

Reminds me of science to be honest, blue skies science vs applied science. There will be purists who say you should write to produce beautiful stuff and have no ambition to live off of it or be published.

>> No.4511316

>>4511245
Why not. Emile Zola sent a fake outraged review of his first book to a newspaper, its how he got famous.

Do you like mark wahlberg, the actor? Yeah, he started in New Kids on The Block

>> No.4511317

I write paranormal teen romance novels under a female pseudonym to support myself writing stuff I'm more passionate about.

>> No.4511320

>>4511298
Even if they are shit to you someone did work on those. There is no magic to writing. You sit down and do the work.

>> No.4511341

There's no reason why you can't combine them both, write a story that will sell but tell it in the way YOU want to tell it.

>> No.4511361

I just love that you kids think that it is possible to get rich writing. You guys are so cute.

>> No.4511457

>>4511361
>this guy

>> No.4511735

>>4511361
Uh, Rowling? Meyer? Terrible (or at least, not more than mediocre) writers, got stupid rich.

>> No.4511751

>>4511361
>Implying that writers write for free.
>Implying that everyone sucks at writing as much as you do.
>Implying that movie deals don't exist.
>Implying that tons of people aren't making a career out of writing.
>Implying implications.

Seriously, though, your a fag.

>> No.4511753

>>4511735
And Bret Easton Ellis has houses in both LA and NY, but I suppose he's slumming it, right?

>> No.4511754

>>4511245
It's no longer possible, practically, to be the kind of writer you're talking about. That kind of writer went hand in hand with the periodicals that served as a major form of entertainment fifty years ago. With print in decline, and television on the rise, the checks writers get are comparatively paltry, and the venues that pay are very competitive.

It's not possible to do hack-work in television because everybody in Los Angeles writes hack-work scripts in their spare time.

I have heard of some people making money writing loads of garbage self-help books and self-publishing them through amazon.

>> No.4511767

>>4511341
This. Genuinely good, relevant prose is always marketable. I guarantee you JK Rowling or whoever wrote those Twilight books didn't just sit down and try to write something "marketable and low-quality". It probably was the very best they could do and if it weren't, I'm sure it wouldn't have sold as well. Now, about selling out; there's a big difference between paying attention to trends and simply doing something to fit in. That being said, I heard that JK Rowling tried to release a serious novel but it tanked and then she released another under a false name and it did really well. Not sure what the whole story on that was, though.

>> No.4511838

>>4511767
>I heard that JK Rowling tried to release a serious novel but it tanked and then she released another under a false name and it did really well.
it's the other way around
she published under a pen name and no one bought it. some critics supposedly gave her good reviews. it then became public that she was the author and suddenly everyone wanted to read it.

>> No.4511867

>>4511361
This guy is write in a way. It is extremely rare to make much money writing, unless you write a wildly successful YA series or something that becomes a movie. The most you can hope for is living solely off your writing,

>> No.4514026

>>4511867
>is write
get the fuck out

>> No.4514031
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4514031

>>4514026
Easy mistake to make. Just like your brash, 4channy lack of punctuation.

I don't know why I say this since people on the internet are too stupid to adapt literally any helpful lesson, but if you disagree with his post, criticize its substance, not his grammar.

>Inb4 you never criticize the substance of his post and instead opt for another one-liner shitpost aimed at me.

>> No.4514413
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4514413

Honestly, writing and reading are the only real passions of my life. I'd be happier living in a one-room apartment and eating instant noodles off a writer's salary for the rest of my life, than living in a condo on the coast of Monaco if it meant I couldn't write.

So why have I had writer's block for two years?

>> No.4516142

>>4514031
You're probably talking to someone who gets mad at hyperbolic use of the word "literally". don't waste your time

>> No.4516145

>>4511867
>>4514026
not catching the obvious, glorious pun
>shiggy diggy doo

>> No.4516146

>>4514413
Because you are lying to yourself

>> No.4516187

My ambitions of being a writer are more based around wanting to produce a "valuable" piece of work which I am proud of, rather than purely for the writing itself. I don't believe -- or, for me, anyway -- that one can produce steady work of a creative medium and maintain a sufficient level of quality -- sufficient for the self, that is. I would neither be proud of nor happy with producing several low-quality pieces with my name attached to it in exchange for meager pay. I might do this much more infrequently than every other month, under a pseudonym, for a little extra cash on the side, the caveat being that I am decently satisfied with this work (i.e. more-polished drafts of scrapped ideas) and am under no obligation to produce it.

If someone else were to do this I would call them crazy before I would call them a sell-out. I would consider them a sell-out, sure, but I would think they'd soon be a burn-out as well. How much you must hate yourself in order to continue doing that as your sole means of income. Painting lines on a canvas, not caring where or what color they are. In fact, I might go so far as to say that anyone who would "sell-out" in the fashion described does *not* enjoy writing and instead merely enjoys the writing persona. That, or they've no ideas of their own. I do not believe this would damage reputation unless the content was abhorrent; you're still published, which is 2 full legs up on people who aren't.

>> No.4516404

>>4511245
are you sure you could put out low quality works and get paid for it? do you actually think getting published is as easy as trying to write dribble for the masses? as if you did it would get instantly published and you'd make enough money for yourself to live on?

sounds like you haven't actually tried yet

>> No.4516469

>>4516404
have you?

im nop OP btw

>> No.4516475

>>4516145
it's a shitty pun that doesn't make any sense

it's a better typo

>> No.4516478

>>4516404
yeah and it hasnt worked out so far.

there's not a magic button you can press to get published. takes lots of work.

>> No.4516496

Pathetic. Get a real job and progress through life as anyone else would.

>> No.4516501

>>4516496
B-But JK Rowling...

>> No.4516531

Has anyone here ever self published through like Amazon?

Some people are making a fair chunk of change off of it, usually they're writing niche erotica. A recent big seller was the the genre called dinosaur porn about giant extinct reptiles boinking humans. I'm serious.

I've been on r/writing (yeah, I know) it's full of people who can't understand why you would ever publish traditionally when you can keep a higher share of the profits through the self publishing route. Unlike here, where I assume most of you are attempting to write serious literary fiction, they're writing young adult and erotica. I personally think writing in those genres alone counts as selling out.

>> No.4516547

>>4516531
it counts as being pathetic. I mean how desperate do you have to fucking be to want to solely make a living off writing dinosaur porn? Seriously ? Just get a damn job and work on your novel on the side.

>> No.4516563

>>4516547
I understand where you're coming from. Hell, when ever I see someone over the age of 14 reading young adult books or hear people saying they write erotica I have this totally irrational burst of contempt for them.

But money is money. They clearly enjoy doing it and they are getting seen and read by thousands, isn't that everyone's dream here?

To anyone here who is thinking of self publishing their literary fiction, I just want to warn you that you will almost certainly not make a dime and I don't want you to end up discourage. The eBook market is full of plebs.

Try submitting to literary magazines instead, like Tin House.

>> No.4516568

>>4516563
Or of course, The April Reader...

>> No.4516608

>>4516187
I enjoy writing. Stringing words together in prose is simply fun for me. There doesn't have to be a deep plot or meaning to whatever I'm writing for me to enjoy doing it. I could crank out any old first draft and have fun with it. I don't I'd ever get 'burnt out', doing this because it's entertaining for me. Sure I also enjoy working for a long time on a work of 'merit' but its a different kind of satisfaction. To me YOU sound like the guy that doesn't enjoy writing if you can't bring yourself to, you know, write.

>> No.4516620

>>4511245
Well my attitude has always been "fuck it," because motherfuckers love it. To be a soldier you must maintain composure at ease, and although life is complicated, it's really only what you make it to be. Uhh. My ambitions as a writer are to catch her while shes hot, and horny, and go up inside her. Then I spit some game in her ear, "read my draft, hoe." I'm equipped with money and a Benz, because bitch I'm barely broke.

>> No.4516624

I would probably use a pseudonym and consider making sure after my death that it known it was me.

>> No.4516625

I don't think I would. I've got lots of (what I believe to be) great gimmicks in my head and I don't want to waste them on stuff that no one is going to read.

>> No.4516631

>>4516625
Don't do this, don't stagnate. You'll never write anything if you keep saving your 3 ideas, which are probably not as good as you think. Get it out, throw it away, keep producing, always always.

>> No.4516640

Having high literary ambitions but mediocre ability is more embarrassing than "selling out." If you're producing genre fiction or whatever, at least there's no pretension.

>> No.4516647

>>4516625
Cordwainer Smith used a lot of great gimmicks on stories nobody read at the time, and he's sort-of remembered today.

>> No.4516668

>>4511316

>Do you like mark wahlberg, the actor? Yeah, he started in New Kids on The Block

That was Donnie. Mark was a "rapper". He's a hack at everything too.

>> No.4516674

>>4511361

The bitch that wrote 50 shades of grey. You have to listen to interviews with her, they're hilarious, she was writing to masturbate to, so maybe she is a modern Genet?

No but seriously, I don't think she has read anything other than twilight in her life.
Shit is just luck tho.

How did Harry Potter get so big?

>> No.4516678

>>4511361

A guy from my town is named Linwood Barclay, he drives a porsche and writes detective novels, and one of them is getting made into a movie now by the guy that made the Hangover. It's hard to get rich writing, but if you find a niche people eat that shit up at airports etc. It's a step up from drugstore pulp, for men, but also not literature. You have to find your market.

>> No.4516685

>>4514413

mate you haven't been to that condo in Monaco.

>> No.4516689

>>4516496

I like the way JM Coetzee looks at it, he like to write because he feels productive, he doesn't have (or so he says) any other illusions about it.

>> No.4516690

>>4516531
>A recent big seller was the the genre called dinosaur porn about giant extinct reptiles boinking humans. I'm serious.

It's the new Thomas Pynchon novel

>> No.4517153

>>4511361
Tao Lin doesn't even work and has a McBook Pro and goes to Taiwan every year to visit their parents.
I only left my town 2 times in my life.

>> No.4518177

>>4516404
>self published ebooks

>> No.4518274

>>4516531
i think it's only selling out if you write in those genres specifically to appeal to a wider audience. from what i've seen though (flitting around wattpad and knowing a few YA writers irl), most of these people are genuine when they write this shit. it's not like they churn out a hundred pages and then go back to reading petersburg. it's more like, they write a bunch of XbyY shit, and then they go back to reading more XbyY shit.

i think the cultures of ya/erotica are different enough that you can almost consider them completely different forms of entertainment to reading literature.

as for op, you could always be an investigative journalist. it worked for hemingway.

>> No.4519772

>>4518274
hemmingway

it's spelled with two m's

>> No.4521664

>>4518274

What about someone who reads Petersburg, churns out a hundred pages of trendy marketable stuff to keep an income and audience from writing but has ambitions to move up to publishing Petersburgs once/if they gain following and enough money to tone down on focusing on quantity? Is it selling out, or is it doing what you can to get on the ladder as long as you have ambition to move up it?