Writing for love or money?

[Floris]

The publishing industry has changed dramatically since the internet spread widely among developed nations. Before the web, newspapers and publishing houses controlled the way writers released their work. In the current environment, journalism can be shared on webzines, and books can be self-published. When the big companies controlled everything, getting paid was easily defined. That isn't the case now. Getting paid for writing takes a lot of work. The central question we're going to ask is why are you writing – Love or Money?

Three ways to know if you're writing for the love of it:

1) You write only when your heart is in it
This means you write when something motivates you to create something you're passionate about.

2) You write about topics you love
You would be the kind of person who skips research whenever possible unless it is something you're excited about learning.

3) You create when the mood strikes you
You find yourself sitting at the computer to write only when you are inclined to. There is no schedule for the written word to be produced. It's when you are ready.

Three indications you write for money:

1) You know of and are registered at one or more article selling sites
You know that your words are powerful and a financial investment. You find the outlets for your work and tap away for any project someone is requesting.

2) You now the mantra – Content is King – and live by it
Aware of how vast the internet is, you know how essential the content is for a forum owner or a blogger. You are their backup.

3) You know what Copyscape is and have had or do have an account with them
Keeping your work fresh, new, and yours is important to you. You keep your writing coming and clean, but you also make sure no one else is using it that hasn't paid you.

Which one are you? Do you write for the love or write for the money? Can you add to either list? Are you a writer for love or for money?

 

[Azhria Lilu]

I don't think there's a really clear divide between writing for love or money. Everyone who writes would like to earn money from their words, deep down, they just won't always admit to it.

Your second set of options - for writing for money - is more for those people who write articles, I think. It doesn't really work for those people who are writing fiction as we don't focus on article selling sites, content being king or copyscape, but we do have our own areas where we can sell shorts, flash fiction and a lot of people make a decent living just from doing that.

Most fiction writers will tell you (me included) that we write for the love of it - but it's a twisted kind of love. We simply can't not write. But, with that said, your first set of options don't really apply as we generally do have a routine that we stick to. Writing isn't quite as easy as just sitting down and spewing out a load of words. We usually have a specific time when we'll remove ourselves from everything, head to our writing corner/desk/room and focus on writing. We'll have a daily word count target, we have days set aside for research. We treat it like a job and have set hours

There's also a lot of blood, sweat and tears lol

 

[Floris]

Yeah, it is hard to generalize writing. Some people write books, others write blog posts, they both feel they are writing content.