Issue #341: How to Earn Money from Your Writing
The “starving artist” life sentence has us accept that creativity is undervalued in our society. It suggests that those of us who rely on creative gifts to make a living can expect to be poorly paid, and the rest of us are entitled to exploit them or short-change them in money terms, and undervalue them in human terms.
Lynne Twist • The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life
Never before has so much culture been available to so many at such little cost.
There’s just one tiny problem.
Where’s the audience? The supply of culture is HUGE and GROWING. But the demand side of the equation is ugly.
In many cases—newspaper subscribers, album purchases, movie tickets sold, etc.—the metrics have been shrinking or even collapsing.
... See moreTed Gioia • The State of the Culture
The sense that one has become the instrument of invention is so satisfying that I find it truly stupefying that anyone one would claim that artists are motivated to create primarily by the money they might get from such miracles. Not to say they shouldn't be paid. Paying them provides them with more time and liberty to channel art. But it's a rare ... See more
John Perry Barlow • Evernote Viewer
We are in the early stages of understanding how to fund writing. There is tension because we value good writing but don't want to pay for it or think it's the best business model.
Marie Dolle • Monetizing newsletters: when creators strive with ideas
Recently I met with Bill Ivey, the former chairman for the National Endowment of the Arts. He told me that we sometimes think the alternative to the Starving Artist is what he calls the Subsidized Artist, but that’s the wrong way to think about it. Art needs money. We can deny it all we want and pretend starving makes for better art, but starving o
... See moreJeff Goins • Real Artists Don't Starve: Timeless Strategies for Thriving in the New Creative Age
Some artists tend to think making money is either a system you sell out to or something to be avoided altogether. But in reality, it’s neither. If you don’t make money, you won’t have any art to make. We must seek to better understand the business of being an artist. Ignoring this reality is the fastest route to stop creating altogether. To be an a
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