Why I'm Not Giving You A Freebie

It's been a long time since I last did this blogging thing (for the purposes of brevity, we'll just call it "blogging.") The world has changed; blogging has changed. And the good news is, so have I.

I spent a lot of time writing about other people's work, reviewing other people's stories; I've always wanted to make my own, and being away from blogging and that side of things is what encouraged me to do just that.

That's right; I wrote a book.

Several books, actually. You can see a full list on Amazon (seriously, just go "Ken Mooney" and it'll be fine.) But this isn't a post about those books; this is a post about things that people say.

Because there are a couple of things that people ask or say when they find out you've written a book, and it's about time that people realised how that sounds.

So You Wrote A Book? You Must Be Rich, Right?

Hah. Nope. The money I make from writing is maybe enough to afford one drink a month. Obviously, the more books you have, the more you make, and there are things you can do to push your sales up. But...nope, books don't sell that well.

So Can I Have A Free Copy?

Um...

Okay, I'm actually not against giving away free copies, but there's a certain approach that I've gotten more than once that really helps me put this in perspective.

Do you know how long it took to write a book? Well...it takes a long time, longer still to edit it, to decide where you're going with the story; there's sleepless nights and early mornings, there are showers that are wasted by spending more time plotting than lathering, and entire dinner conversations where you're trying to come up with a new way of describing exactly what this whole "taste" thing is.

That's time; then there's the money. Cover artists, interior artists, editors, production; think how many lumberjacks it took to cut down that tree to make that book you're holding. Because you demand a print copy for...what, is that pride?

You know who pays for that print copy?

Me.

So Can My Friend Get  A Copy? They'll Really Like Your Book.

Then buy them a copy. As a matter of fact, you want to support me that bad, buy a copy for a few of your friends, tell them about it and get them to tell their friends. And then buy some more.

This isn't just me. I'm sure there are many other writers who might want to chime in on how we're "giving it away" for free, or expected to, or maybe some artists or that. As a matter of fact, people's unwillingness to give me money then trickles down the drain and means I have even less money to pay for my artists and the like.

Starving artists are right; we're starving because you won't feed us!