Have you ever visited a restaurant where the food was fantastic, but the service was atrocious? I’ve known several places like that. People who love to cook might dream for years about opening their own place—and then once they do, the restaurant fails.
Why? Because the skill of being a good cook is different from the skill of running a business.
The same goes for writing. Just because we’re good at writing doesn’t mean we can turn ourselves into a business.
In fact, some of us don’t want to think of ourselves that way. We might even hate the idea with a passion. Others of us look at that approach and think, “Duh. How else would it be?”
Philosophies Make Us Different
Like my post last time on avoiding the publishing kool-aid, there is no “right” way to approach the business aspect of writing. Katie Ganshert commented on my post with a link to her blog asking about our personal philosophy as writers.
This idea that writers have different philosophies is important. It’s so important that I suspect differing philosophies about whether to consider writing as a business is behind much of the vehement disagreements between some advocates of traditional publishing and self-publishing.
Do You See Your Writing as a Business Endeavor?
Some writers aren’t comfortable thinking of themselves as a business. Maybe they know they wouldn’t be any good at it. Maybe they want to avoid risk. Or maybe they don’t want to deal with learning all the business stuff, much less doing it.
They’re looking for agents and publishers to be their partners, and in some way, maybe even like their employers. They produce the product and someone else does the rest of the work. They might even equate their query letters to job applications.
This approach is not wrong. They are doing what is right for them.
Other writers would consider themselves a business no matter how they published. They are entrepreneurs at heart. Their writing endeavor is a start-up business that needs an upfront investment, just as a new restaurateur has to spend money on tables, uniforms, and kitchen equipment.
They don’t see themselves as employees of publishers. Publishers are a means to an end. And if the publishers can’t get them to that end, there’s no point in staying with them. These writers are perfectly fine with finding other resources to get them there.
This approach is not wrong. They are doing what is right for them.
Where Does the Name Calling Fit In?
So why does this difference of philosophies cause so much name calling? Because like most philosophical things, we don’t consciously think about this stuff very often.
Instead, we look at the actions of so-and-so and think they must be an idiot. Even if they try to explain their actions to us, they talk about the circumstances surrounding that one decision without going into the depths of their philosophy.
We see only the symptoms rather than the cause. So we have no way of knowing that their actions make perfect sense for their philosophy.
Think about it for a minute. How are we taught how to tell if something is a writing scam? We’re told: Money flows to the author. We’re told: If a publisher charges you to publish your book, run away.
And yet, how do self-published authors get started? By spending their own money on editors, cover artists, and designers.
For those who embrace the writing-is-my-job philosophy, the entire concept of self-publishing looks suspiciously close to vanity publishing. I could name twenty ways self-publishing is different from vanity publishing, but I can still understand the confusion to someone who thinks authors shouldn’t take financial risks.
Yes, to some authors who don’t see themselves as a business, those who self-publish look like idiots.
On the other hand, for those who embrace the writing-is-my-business philosophy, the idea of sitting back and hoping a publisher will have good cover art, will do enough marketing, and won’t make wonky editorial changes gives them hives. They can’t imagine not championing their work. They’ll gladly take the financial risk to reduce the other risks.
Yes, to some authors who see themselves as a business, those who go with the flow of traditional publishing look like idiots.
No One Is an Idiot
Hmm, no one? Okay, I take that back. I’ve known some people who did truly stupid things to mess up their lives, but that wasn’t about publishing. *smile*
We all have good reasons for making the choices we make, even if those reasons aren’t apparent from the surface. And those reasons might be hidden from others because they are such a core part of our philosophy that we don’t even realize they’re there.
Our philosophy can influence whether we pursue going to conferences, paying dues to join professional writing organizations, blogging, getting a website, developing a brand, deciding whether we should even have a brand. In other words, our philosophy profoundly affects everything we do and how we do it.
I’ll end this by cautioning those who don’t want to consider themselves a business. Make sure your goals are compatible with markets that don’t require a business philosophy. And as the publishing landscape gets more complicated, those who rely on their agent/publisher for the business side of things will need to make sure they can really trust them.
Maybe if we’re aware of our philosophy and understand how that’s influenced our decisions, the name calling of others won’t hurt as much. Or maybe we’ll know how to defend ourselves against those who disagree. Or maybe we’ll discover our philosophy and our approach don’t match as well as we thought they did and that the “idiots” were right. *smile*
Do you agree with my theory that differing philosophies causes much of the vehement disagreement? What’s your philosophy when it comes to the business side of writing? Do you consider your writing a business endeavor? If you see your writing as a business, do you treat it that way? Will you spend your own money upfront to invest in your business? How has your philosophy has affected your choices?
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