So… let’s talk about the business of writing.
It’s definitely a business, unless you’re writing and posting your stuff for free online. (Or just using it as parrot cage lining.) Being a professional writer is a tough gig. It’s hard to convince readers that your work is worth a couple of bucks, but we have to eat somehow. Writing isn’t powered by moon dust and unicorn farts.
So you’ll excuse me if I find it profoundly offensive that anyone thinks that a professional writer should work for free.
An author put up a Kickstarter for the sequel to one of her novels, asking for a meagre $10,000 to cover production and living expenses, and the Internet collectively lost its shit that this author had the unmitigated gall to ask for money to live on.
And there was whining, and crying, and the usual assholery (that is totally a word) tossing shit on this author because she ‘didn’t phrase it right’ or because she was asking for too much or because she is totally privileged and how dare she ask for money or offer people blog content or – just read the link above, good grief.
I have no patience for this crap.
They then dumped more shit on this author for stopping the Kickstarter and shutting down her social media accounts, as if she was just meant to take all this shit without becoming profoundly affected by it. Apparently there were aerial photos of her home – her home – emailed to her. Because she put up a Kickstarter and asked for money to write a book I DON’T EVEN KNOW, SERIOUSLY.
Chuck Wendig has about all I’d like to say on the matter outside of a string of swearwords, but I will add this much:
You do not have the right to criticize how much money people ask for, or what they use that money for, on a site where some idiot convinced the Internet to give him $55,000 to make potato salad. Who other people give their money to is none of your damn business unless it’s an actual scam, and the very second you engage in harassment because you’re outraged by someone asking for money to do a thing you find ridiculous, you have officially lost your moral high ground and you need to Stop.
I mean – aerial photos?! If anyone tried that on me, I’d sharpen my longsword and make it very, very clear that anyone who threatens me or mine had better be ready to face me in single combat!
I don’t work for free and I’ll be damned if I have to justify that to anyone. My heart goes out to this poor author. No one deserves this just for wanting to devote all their time to writing a book for their fans.