
What If You Can’t Afford “A Room of One’s Own”? - bryanrasmussen
https://electricliterature.com/what-if-you-cant-afford-a-room-of-one-s-own-120806c0becc
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caymanjim
> Now a new generation of writers are confronting ever lower and less reliable
> payment for articles, stingier advances for books, fewer jobs, and smaller
> royalty checks. A host of new threats to writers’ livelihoods, from internet
> piracy to the slow-motion collapse of the academic job market, means ever
> fewer writers are making a middle-class wage.

I'm not sure I buy the premise. I think there are a lot more wannabe writers
now, because anyone can publish online for free. There are far, far more
writers getting paid today than there were decades ago, when there simply
wasn't as much media in general.

I'm sure the average payment per work product has gone down, if you're
including all the new media. But do writers really get paid less for high-
quality content now? Does a bestselling book author today make less
(inflation-adjusted) than a bestselling book author did decades ago? Does a
weekly New York Times columnist make less?

The starving artist cliche is older than dirt. If an artist isn't successful,
it's usually because they're simply not good enough to attract a paying
audience. There's nothing wrong with this, and I think the only thing that's
changed is that the ease of publishing online means that everyone fancies
themselves a writer now.

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ggm
The problem of art in a financially reductionist world feels like it's the
inherent contradiction between fierce independence of voice, coupled to
complete dependence on beneficent sources of money and living. Either arts go
back to paid journeymen and women and patrons determine what is made and for
whom. Or art is made by the independently wealthy elite.

Traditional and tribal and folk art is embedded in communal culture. You pay
art tax to cohere knowledge and appease the gods. Art is done for the self
satisfaction of arting.

I have read several versions of 'how do I start being a writer' and a common
thread is that if you aren't writing independently of any income or benefit,
you're probably asking the wrong question. How do I live off my writing is a
better question (the one posed here) and I don't know there is an answer.

