Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Business as Usual

I am a regular reader of many writing-related magazines, forums, and blogs. There is a consistent theme in them these days that is driving me nuts. Why are writers complaining about the fact that successful writing is a full-time business and as such we writers also must be successful businesspeople? Writing is a business. It has customers, suppliers, and middlemen. It requires accounting, plans, production, quality, and all the other facets of business.

So you went to school to be a writer and not a businessperson? Then shame on the schools of higher learning for not requiring courses in basic businss. Shame on you for not doing your homework and realizing the basic elements of a successful writing career.

I was once in that crowd. You know, write something, put up a website, and the sales will come. Doesn't happen that way. And at the time I was already a professional and successful businessman in another field. But for some dumb reason I never made the connection.

But now I read in professional writing magazines, websites, and blogs written by professional writers a whole slew of complaints about this business of writing. How dare you? And editors, how dare you print this stuff that your own staff is whining about? Why are you critizizing your own business? In my business world apart from writing, such things just do not happen. I never read in my engineering journals complaints about the expanded responsibilities one has to the overall business. Anyone who pigeonholes themselves into being just an engineer or just a writer will quickly find themselves at the bottom of the slush pile.

Business is a fact of life and the writing business is no different than any other. Stop the whining!