To put it simply: We are not returning to the prosperity days of the 1990's. The good news is it may be a boon for authors who self-publish and sell their novels for $0.99 on Kindle. What do you think an author's best move is in this new economy?
I honestly don't know. As a noob mysef I have my worries about our future (writing) but at this time I'm a bit more worried about what the new "Super committee" will be doing to the rest of my life. Ugh! As a side note, I was contacted by a self publication company who charges 4.5 grand is that normal?
I think the question might be, why worry about money matters as a writer? I mean, in general, unless you have some mad skillz, you are not going to be making much money as a writer anyway. If making money was your intention, then writing as a career is probably not the best chice of profession. Honestly, only a small percentage of professional writers can make a good living doing this. The real profit, for me anyways, is in the act of writing itself. The art, and the science, and the improvement of technique, the expression, the practice of the craft offers its own rewards.
I agree. As I've read in other posts about this, if you're just doing this for the money, then stop. Write for fun, for pleasure, because you get enjoyment out of it.
I agree with Steerpike. The fact is there will be novels that make money. There will be series novels that make lots of money. It has always been the rare author who sees that fortune, but especially now, it can happen for anyone. Anyone, that is, who can actually craft an interesting story that is also a good read. I'm thinking the worse the economy gets the more the playing field may level out. When the economy is bad, not so many people are going to pay 19 bucks for a novel. They may start looking at "cheap" novels, and that's where self-publishers have the advantage over the big house publishers.
Writing must be a passion if you are going to succeed at it, by any measure of success. If you are planning to publishe, or are currently published, of course you have to keep an eye on the money side as well. Let's face it. If you cannot viiew the world, or any aspect of it, from multiple perspectives, creative writing probably is not for you anyway.
