For once, I’m not blogging my ‘week in review’. I’ll go read through the other posts when I’m done. But I’ve been thinking this week on the business v. pleasure aspects of writing. I’m not sure I have come to any conclusions, but I thought I’d at least share my observations.

1. There are reviews that are nothing but fluff, and writers hate them because they’re not ‘real’.
2. There are reviews that are scathing, personal attacks, and writers hate them because they’re not ‘real’.
3. There are reviews that tell an author where they went wrong without being malicious. These are some talented reviewers.
4. Reviews that leave a writer cowering in a corner sucking their thumb are not good, no matter whether the review is valid or not.
5. Some writers write because they feel it in their soul
6. Some writers write because ‘they can’.
7. Neither approach is right or wrong, and neither approach makes you a good/bad writer.
8. Sometimes you will be treated as a professional–your editor, fellow writers, and publisher will talk to you as though this is a job, and you are competent at doing it.
9. Sometimes you will be made to feel as though your publisher is doing you a favour by taking your work.
10. Sometimes you will feel as though you’re doing them a favour
11. Anonymity on the internet is, nine times out of ten, not a Good Thing ™ (no, I’m not including pen names, because our pen names are names we stand behind, and we’re held accountable for things we say using that name.
12. Choosing to publish with one company or another is, nine times out of ten, a Business decision
13. No matter what job you fill in the ‘writing industry’: writer, editor, publisher, reviewer, etc….Someone will always be willing to believe your business decisions are personal ones.
14. And no matter what job you fill…sometimes making those business decisions is personally painful.

So, my question for you guys today…well, is writing a business? Or is it pleasure? Any observations to share?

4 Responses to “Business or Pleasure?”

1. Amie Stuart Says:
   February 23rd, 2007 at 10:17 pm

   It is a business. But when you put a bunch of women together…well it’s all fun and games till someone loses a tit *g*

2. Sara Dennis Says:
   February 24th, 2007 at 11:30 pm

   A pleasurable business? No, that sounds like a different profession.

   Writing is a business, but it should be one that we enjoy. Maybe we don’t enjoy all the pieces of the whole, but overall, if we’re not enjoying it, why are we doing it?

3. Shelli Stevens Says:
   February 25th, 2007 at 5:27 am

   It is both, but I think there comes a point when authors sometimes focus heavier on the business side. There heart isn’t in the writing as much anymore. That’s when the books suffer.

4. Crystal Jordan Says:
   February 26th, 2007 at 3:22 pm

   Pleasureable business, usually. Until i get a nasty, scathing review. Then it’s just business. For that day, at least.