It's more than just pushing a pencil around to form words. Those words have to make sense, and tell a story.
Journalism can sometimes be a bit easier, since you just report the facts. Who said what, where and when. The why isn't always available at the time of writing, especially for a daily news operation, but that part can be left to the commentators and opinion writers to speculate on.
Fiction, on the other hand, can be even more difficult, not only in the creative process, but in marketing the product as well, since that's a separate skill that few writers have.
Moreover, there is the problem of attracting the attention of a publisher. Publishing companies are bombarded with dozens of offerings every day, and the advent of computers and email has made it easier for writers to send copies of their books without worrying about typing a new copy, paying postage, and hoping earlier typescripts are returned.
Modern technology, meanwhile, has made self publishing a lot easier for authors to publish their work on their own, without having to pay others and wait while they get around to doing the work.
In addition, the newly published book becomes available worldwide within hours, and the tech company pays royalties within a few months. By comparison, a traditional publisher may pay royalties only every six months, beginning a full calendar year after publication.
There are also vanity publishers, who will print as many copies as the author wants and is willing to pay for. As for marketing, distribution and sales, the authors are on their own.
Then there is the new breed of publisher, who will take on the job of printing, distributing and marketing the new book on what's called a "contributory" arrangement with the author.
Simply put, this means the author contributes some $2,900 toward the cost of publishing. Later, assuming a royalty of $1 per copy sold, that means nearly 3,000 copies must be sold before the author recoups the investment.
But even if an author pays the basic cost of printing, shipping, handling, sales tax and postage to have a book delivered to the author's home by the self-publishing firm, there remains the issue of persuading local bookstores to stock copies.
Some refuse to deal with any work printed by a large, well known tech company because they fear the worldwide firm is trying to put local booksellers out of business.
Others offer to stock an author's work, but on conditions that make it silly for the author to accept. For example, a bookstore will accept a maximum of three copies, on consignment, with a consignment fee of $15 and a 40 percent share of the retail price.
Consider: Printing, shipping and handling will cost the author $4 per copy. Add to that a consignment fee of $5 per copy and you get a total of $9.
Next, deducting from the retail price of $10, the store keeps $4 and gives the author $6. But the author has already spent $9 per copy, which means a loss of $3 just for having the work printed and delivered to the store. Meanwhile, the author has earned nothing for the time and effort of the creative process of actually writing the book. And the store has received a total of $9 -- consignment fee plus a share of the retail price.
So what's a writer to do?
Traditional publishers show no interest, "contributory" publishers are too expensive and show no signs of a reasonable, timely return on the investment, bookstores either refuse to deal with self-published works or make it financially not feasible for an author to participate.
Conclusion: Stay with the tech company's self-publishing division and do a bit of marketing on your own, all while hoping that worldwide exposure will compensate for the disappointment of losing a local relationship.
Which may not have been there to begin with, so it doesn't matter.
And remember the words of Samuel Johnson: "No one but a blockhead ever wrote except for money."
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