What is your writing worth? A six figure advance, or $.49?

The dream to be a published author most times ends in rejection.
The Competition is great. Demands by agents and publishers even greater. A three hundred page novel may have taken one, two, even ten years to complete. Does it have value…what is it really worth? What amount would you settle for?

domenic Pappalardo wrote:

The dream to be a published author most times ends in rejection.
The Competition is great. Demands by agents and publishers even greater. A three hundred page novel may have taken one, two, even ten years to complete. Does it have value…what is it really worth? What amount will you settle for?

My book took 4 years to write--I accepted $1.00 for it and consider I was very well served.

Time is money--" I could have said I want more money. I will write and rewrite until I get it" and easily ended up with nothing.

What JoElle said!

Money isn't the motivation for me. I'd rather have someone say, "I really enjoyed that book by Merri Hiatt" or "That book by Merri Hiatt made me laugh, think or want to puke." I want some kind of reaction. More precisely, some kind of communication with the reader. If money follows, I'm not complaining, though!

dominec, I think it's safe to say that a person's writing, just like everything else we have, is worth just exactly what we can get someone to pay us for it.

If you have an object that is valued at $10,000, but all you can get a buyer to offer for it is .49 cents, then that is exactly what it's worth. You then have to decide whether to keep it or sell it. Sometimes we do one, sometimes the other.

It is kind of like green beans. You can grow the most wonderful green beans ever produced, but if the person who wants green beans comes along after you have dumped them to the goats, there you are. Beanless and someone flapping their gums about wanting green beans. Do you grow a whole other vat of green beans because one idiot was too late? Or do you go on and grow some flowers because they please yourself more.

Love,
Betty

Betty's green beans remind me of my grandfather's tomatoes. It was around the mid-30's. My grandfather had a bumper crop of tomatoes, all perfectly shaped, just the right size, tons of them. He took them to market knowing that they were unusually valuable tomatoes.

When he arrived at the market, it turned out that farmers from Oklahoma had come down to Texas with their crops - mediocre tomatoes, but they got them in early. They had flooded the market, and my grandfather's prime tomatoes were worthless. He brought them back to the farm and dumped them - a mountain of tomatoes that could do nothing but rot in the sun. My grandmother and the neighbors all canned as many as they could, but that barely made a dint.

So, just another example showing how any product is never worth more than the customer is willing to pay.

Ann

Dear Ann,
It must be all a matter of timing. Take the strawberries.

All the big strawberry farmers nuked their fields at the end March and put in Cantalopes. During that time, I could not compete with strawberries. Now, I am the only person on earth with strawberries to pick. Not for long, but another couple of weeks.

No one knows I have them except the local people.

Today, the Bradenton Herald came by to see about me. They may come tomorrow and do some story. They saw all my signs along the roads.

Today, I sold 20 dollars worth of flowers at 50 cents each. I was happy. Dahlias, Zinnias, iris, fresias, and cosmos. I do love the flowers.

We shall see.

Love,
Betty

Betty Fasig wrote:

It is kind of like green beans. You can grow the most wonderful green beans ever produced, but if the person who wants green beans comes along after you have dumped them to the goats, there you are. Beanless and someone flapping their gums about wanting green beans. Do you grow a whole other vat of green beans because one idiot was too late? Or do you go on and grow some flowers because they please yourself more.

Love,
Betty

Betty, that's it exactly.

I'm going to grow some flowers.

Somehow no one wants to buy the beans.

Love ya, Carol

The old saying, "Find a need and fill it."
If a book does that, it will sell. Unlike tomatoes, a book won't rot
in the sun. It can wait for years.

I want $1,000,000

My grandfather had a saying…”Poop in one hand, and wish in the other. See which gets filled up first.”

A good friend, Max Lewis once said,"Many are waiting for their ship to come in. Their only problem, they never sent one out."

The issue of why we write keeps coming up and money seems to be a put down. If one writes for a living, then writing for money is the main goal. It comes down to our motivation for writing - for pleasure, to inform, or whatever, we all have our reasons.
Of course writing a story and getting it published are separate issues. How many write without any thought of getting their work published?

A book is worth what the market will pay and how many they will buy. We can determine what we want, but not what someone will pay. We can increase the value of our work by demonstrating demand in the market or getting our name better known. One of my books increased in value after publication as a publisher aproached me and offered an advance to make it an audio book. Value and worth differ to the author vs the publisher/reader. Marketability determines worth and can change over time. A niche book could be more valuable than a general interest book if everyone in the special interest group wants it because so few are written on their subject.

Perhaps there is a difference here between women and men on this issue. I spent eighteen years at home raising children and then went to work. I remember being in a discussion of "personal life versus professional life," and couldn't even join in because there was only one life as far as I was concerned.

I've made money when I wasn't trying to make money. I know that sounds idealistic, like "do what you love and the money will follow." These times haven't been small amounts, and have overwhelmed me. One time when I told my husband how much I would make on the sale of some property I had purchased for a small amount of money I'd saved, he seemed to ignore me, and I was very angry. Then he told me I could do what I wanted with it. So still angry, I said I was going to buy a convertible.

Later he came and asked what color. "Red," I answered. And still later he asked where I was putting it, and I replied, "In the garage." Well, family members knew about this little altercation and were waiting for the red convertible, but it never arrived. I paid off the mortgage on our house instead.

Carol

Abe F. March wrote:

Of course writing a story and getting it published are separate issues. How many write without any thought of getting their work published?

Separate issues? Who orders food in a restaurant not intending to eat?

You've written a prescription for self-defeat.

W. Lane Rogers wrote:

Abe F. March wrote:

Of course writing a story and getting it published are separate issues. How many write without any thought of getting their work published?

Separate issues? Who orders food in a restaurant not intending to eat?

You've written a prescription for self-defeat.

There are many people who write without any thought of getting published. Many folks keep journals or diaries ... heck! even write novels.
They write for personal pleasure ... or other personal reasons.

Just as many people play a musical instrument for the fun of it. They enjoy playing music without any thought of becoming a famous musician.

Same with dance, acting, drawing, etc.

I guess I could add playing sports. Some folks just enjoy playing ball, golfing, swimming, etc. But don't plan to go professional.

Not everyone wants to be published, rich, or famous.

I've heard several artists interviewed lately with a common thread: they are the ones who tell what others are thinking but were afraid to say. They have the courage to expose their core selves to the public. They are also a little crazy - bi-polar, compulsive/obsessive, depressed, manic, ptsd, traumatized, etc. such that their wounded selves scream to be heard to save themselves and others.

W. Lane Rogers wrote:

Abe F. March wrote:

Of course writing a story and getting it published are separate issues. How many write without any thought of getting their work published?

Separate issues? Who orders food in a restaurant not intending to eat?

You've written a prescription for self-defeat.

Lane, I think you misunderstand my remark.

Anyone can write a story, good or bad. Getting it published is a different matter. I stick by that

The second part was a general question. You will note from comments on this board, that there are some who write for the joy of writing.
There are always reasons for what we do. My first book was not originally intended for publication but as a family journal. I was encouraged to seek publication by my daughter. I did, and that got me into the writing mode. Today I would not write unless I felt it had a chance for publication. Writing is hard work and I want to see some benefit.

If someone offered me $1000,000.00 I would not write another book.

I couldn't even think of what to write about.

Besides I would lose my disability pittance--wouldn't want that to happen.

Also, I couldn't deal with the fame. I don't want to go on Oprah.

You think I am short-sighted--you are right--I am.

Alice wrote:

If someone offered me $1000,000.00 I would not write another book.

Accept the offer, Alice. Give me the money and I'll write the book for you. Deal?

Deal!