10/13/2023 0 Comments Authors on substackThe author survey reached an even bigger audience of potential respondents than the agent survey did, and both saw wide distribution through new and legacy industry channels. This is significantly more than the agent survey earlier this year, though it is in no way able to represent the population of authors it can't even represent the population of authors writing the kinds of books being challenged, censored, and banned right now. It is worth noting that this survey had 25 responses. Are authors seeing their incomes decrease? Are they seeing fewer invites to speak to students out of fear of the content their books include? The results are in. The survey specifically sought to look at where or how school and library visit invitations have changed since 2021 - the first year this wave of book bans really caught fire. George Barnett is the author of Know Your Capabilities, the newsletter The Strategy Toolkit, and the forthcoming book The Study of Strategy.In early June, I distributed an author survey to gauge the impact of book bans on authors. We are fortunate instead to be able to write, at all hours of the day or night, and be paid a little bit for our writing, through the new side gig of our paid subscription newsletters. In an earlier time, Ding, Sow, or I could be your waiter at your next restaurant. Or there’s the example of Animatou Sow, author of the Crème de la Crème newsletter, who juggles writing books, posting Instagram stories, and hosting podcasts, which all feature her incisive cultural commentary, such as, “Books are the answer to rampant 21st-century charlatanism.” Or the example of JJ Ding, author of the ChinAI newsletter, who juggles graduate studies with corralling a community of dedicated English-Mandarin translators to make the world of AI research underway in China better understood outside the country, reducing the fear and mistrust between China and the U.S. Every little bit helps, and being paid while writing makes my dream of publishing the next book that much more of a reality. I had so much material and needed time, lots of time: time that was flexible enough to allow me to juggle the responsibilities of raising little children and of contributing to paying the bills, all under pandemic lockdown. Having published one book on strategy, I was looking for a way to write the next one. For many writers on Substack and similar platforms, writing a paid subscription newsletter is the new side gig. Look closer at what is actually happening and you’ll see something else-something that looks very familiar to the waiters in L.A. A grand experiment is underway, with traditional media outlets like the New Yorker and the New York Times decrying the unravelling of the fifth estate. Others, with strong personal brands, believe they can be paid better as independents in control of their own work. Many of these writers were recently let go from their media houses. Originally designed to address the crisis in journalism, wherein the ad-supported business model evaporated like the morning dew and the incremental value of professionally written content drifted down to near nothing, paid newsletters give journalists a chance to be compensated directly for their hard work. Enter a new option: the paid subscription newsletter, the best-known version being Substack. The rewards are in the doing and in what the author or the painter or the parent brings to the world around them. Not all things beautiful, whether writing a book or painting or raising a child, are rewarded financially. Yet most authors know it doesn’t pay much to write. It’s not trivial to be an ersatz taxi or delivery driver and write competently at the same time. What is a self-respecting aspirational author to do in such a world-one turned upside down by the Covid-19 pandemic? It takes time-an enormous amount of time-to write. And, just like in Hollywood, reality hits soon and hits hard, with many making ends meet through side gigs in the euphemistically named gig economy, be it via DoorDash, Instacart, Lyft, Uber, or other such services. As venture capitalist Mark Suster recently put it, “The culture is driven by the 20-something irreverent founder with huge technical chops who in a David-versus-Goliath mythology takes on the titans of industry and wins.” The airports here disgorge a stream of would-be entrepreneurs who dream of creating the next unicorn, or billion-dollar startup. Fast-forward to present-day Silicon Valley, land of a different dream.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |