Is the Novelist Work Not Valued, or Under Valued?

Kathryn Magendie

  it’s not magic . . .

How much do you pay for a haircut? What about going out to dinner? Or a Supreme Latte with extra supreme? Do you like manicures/pedicures? Do you enjoy massages? Do you have a personal trainer? Is there something you value enough to collect?

And of all those things that you purchase and enjoy, do you ever expect to get them for free, or for the Service Provider to do their work for deep discounts?

Of course for most of those things you don’t, right? So why is it when authors talk about money they feel uncomfortable, as if they are embarrassed to even consider the idea of making money from Their Craft?

Is a writer’s work not considered Real Work?

You can buy a book and you can enjoy that book and the feeling it gives you as many times as you want. You can lend your book to a friend or relative and the author receives no royalty on that. You can sell your book to someone and the author receives no royalty on that. The author receives his/her one-time royalty when a book is purchased and that one-time royalty is a small percentage of what the book sells for—and often at discounts, which isn’t a bad thing, for who doesn’t want a “deal,” right?

An author takes months, a year, or for some even longer, writing their book, then they must rewrite and rewrite, then they may go through rejection and uncertainty, then when they have that contract, their work is not done—more editing, more waiting, more stress. When the book is published, their work begins again: marketing, promotion, personal events, etc etc etc—and many things the author pays for out of their own pockets. They must also, during the marketing and promotion, create more work, and the cycle begins again.

Through all of this, the author does not know if his/her book will be loved or hated or ignored or somewhere in between; he/she does not know if it will sell well or will not sell well.

It won’t matter how hard the author worked, how much money the author spent, he/she never knows what their paycheck will be. Anyone who goes into the Novelist business to make money should not go into the novelist business. There are simply too many unknowns. There is a lot of work, a lot of stress, a lot of rejection, and there’s a lot of feeling that your work is Not Of Value—imagine going to work every day and doing the best danged job you can and your boss quibbles with you over your salary and makes you feel as if you should be giving your work away for free or whatever he decides that day to pay you based on whatever he’s feeling about you compared to some other worker.

In matters of art and the heart, it’s hard to place monetary values, but frankly, we have to. Novelists have to make a living, too, and for the Novelist to feel guilty for hoping his/her works sells so that he/she can pay the bills or contribute to the household makes this business seem as if it’s more a Hobby than Real Live Work.

Is it because unlike the stylist or the restaurant worker or the oil tycoon or the actor or the football player or the ice cream man we can do our work in our pajamas tucked in our little houses? You can’t see us working? It looks like lots-o-fun? It’s “easy” or “anyone can do it” – well, even the person who digs a hole gets a paycheck, and just about all of us can dig a hole, right?

Or is it because the writer, the novelist, does not teach people to value his/her work? Did we start it all by being apologetic about what we do? Is it because many times we readily admit we’d do it all for free because we love it so much? It’s all we ever wanted to do. We are begging someone/anyone just to read our work and love us, please please please just love us.

And the thing is, despite my wish to be valued monetarily for “making a living’s sake,” all I ever hope for is to be loved and appreciated by my readers, respected by my colleagues, to have my books in the hands of people who see the love and care that goes into every word I write. I guess that’s a value in itself, right?

No, it’s not magic—it’s hard work, but I don’t want to do anything else, and I go into this with eyes wide opened.