How Much Is a Word Worth?

... somewhat contradicts the claim in the next paragraph:

>There are other consequences to the declining value of the written freelance word. The most obvious is that skilled and insightful writers will ditch the profession for greener (but arguably less prosocial) pastures.

The ugly reality is that insightful writers won't quit. Or even if they do, they will be replaced by other insightful writers willing to charge $0. There have been some amazingly insightful posts written here on HN that obviously paid $0 to the poster. In contrast, some of the computer books for which I paid $39.99 were worthless.

The economics of writing -- shares the same dilemma as other artistic vocations such as music composing, computer graphics drawing, film directing, etc. People would still want to do those activities even if society pays nothing. Those activities are both vocations and avocations so getting paid well isn't what drives new participants into the market. New economic participants all trying "do what they love" creates intense competition. Only a lucky few get to be paid very well. All the rest are perceived as "commodities".

A janitor might fantasize about being a journalist or writing a book. But no novel writer fantasizes about being a janitor.

Even white collar professions have the same envy. Many lawyers write novels on the side and quit practicing law when they have a hit (John Grisham, David Baldacci, etc). How many successful writers dream of quitting the written word so they can go to law school to become attorneys?

Computer programming is one of the lucky professions where there's overlap between enjoyment and high pay. I just heard about billionaire Jim Clark (Netscape) recently programming Objective-C for his home automation system.[1] He already owns a private jet and yacht but didn't hire someone else to do the programming. A 70+ year old billionaire... programming... for fun.

- $0.00 : "It was a dark and stormy night. ..."

- $100k+ : printf("It was a dark and stormy night. ...");

[1] deep link: https://youtu.be/_rL1LnXo3Gs?t=1h2m32s

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-02-23/magazine/tm-10830_1_s...

Once a writer gets well-known ... a track record ... submissions don't go in the slush pile any more. Until then, they're lucky if their stuff gets scanned at all, because everyone wants to be (and thinks they already are) a writer. Even if they're very good, they still have to find an editor with an audience for their writing.

IIRC, Abe Lincoln's wife had a 12th grade education in an era when most American women had an elementary school education of about 4th grade or less. As education levels have gone up, vastly more people are capable of putting pen to paper, so to speak. Simply being capable of writing coherently is no longer an elite skill in its own right.

Additionally, there are vastly more people today and vastly more media outlets. Your article might be read by a larger number of people in absolute figures, but by a smaller percentage of the overall population. This means individual articles are substantially less influential these days. They may influence a subset of the population, but are much less likely to influence "the world."

Plus, there are a lot more resources available today, many of them for free and at the tip of your fingertips. There are major libraries that have put large collections online and made them available for free.

It's cool that he personally interviewed top notch writers to conclude that, no, seriously, the profession is underpaid. But how much value does it really add to the piece? And if he named his sources and really dished the dirt for $8 per word, is there any reason to believe that would have significant positive impact on the industry the way journalistic pieces have had in past eras?

Before becoming a freelance writer, I had been getting praise for my writing for years from published authors I was acquainted with via internet and even a publisher. I had some academic awards and the like in school indicating I wrote well. But most of that had little to do with the kind of writing that pays money, where words are worth something only if they accomplish certain goals. That requires more than a pretty turn of phrase.

I continue to struggle towards a better income for myself and I am currently looking into possibly doing things beyond just writing. I wish very much that my writing paid better.

But I can't help but wonder at the larger forces at work here. Are most words actually worth more than the going rates?

In closing, I will note that JK Rowling became a billionaire from her children's books. As I understand it, that changes the children's publishing industry.

I bet none of the well paid historical writers cited in the article were the equivalent of a billionaire in their time.

Impeached!

Nuclear War!