The Business of Being a Writer

Many writers claim that the digital era and self-publishing has made earning money more difficult. There's even a slogan: "Good news—anyone can publish; bad news—anyone can publish." Friedman (Publishing 101) points out what should be obvious: getting paid for writing has always been difficult. Today's multimedia environment demands even more from authors than well-crafted prose, and as much imagination must be invested in storytelling—whether fictive or not—as in marketing and self-promotion. Covering often unclear business aspects for early career writers as well as deep industry knowledge for full-timers, the author also points out troubling misconceptions by those looking for shortcuts to success rather than doing the hard work of learning the craft, drafting query letters, and dealing with rejection. Appendixes describe and decode the intricacies (and subtle deceptions) of contracts and legal issues associated with permissions, copyright, principles of fair use, etc.