Indecent Exposure: Should You Write For Free (Part #2)?
A Literal Literary Loser Lacks Lots
Last week, I discussed spending a month writing a book proposal on spec which ultimately ended up getting rejected. Was it a waste of time and effort?
I put the proposal together in the hope of being hired for the project and getting paid.
This week, I want to talk about all the writing I’ve been doing lately which I knew from the start I wouldn’t be paid for.
My 18th book, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” came out exactly one year ago. (I broke down how much money I made from it so far, here.)
Though the book came out November 2022, I have been tirelessly promoting it for close to two years now. I did talks for book clubs and synagogues and retirement homes. I did podcast interviews. I made videos.
And I wrote. For free. Blog guest posts, blog interviews, literary round ups, and more. In just November 2023 alone, I wrote:
Laughing Through Tears: A Round-Up of Funny, Jewish Books To Read While the World is on Fire for Bookishly Jewish
A history of Birobidzhan, the Jewish Autonomous Region for Ruth’s Whale
A review of a feminist book about the Cold War for Deep Dive History
A Q&A for Book Notions
A Q&A with Deborah Kalb
Alina Adams’ 3 Favorite Reads 2023 for Shepherd.com
Oh, and I don’t just write for free, I also make videos for free. Here is the latest from the YouTube series where my daughter and I discuss other authors’ Soviet-Jewish books:
I make the videos for free, but I pay my kid to shoot and edit them. So I am actually operating at a loss.
Why do I do it? Why do I put in all this unpaid labor?
Exposure!
That’s what they say, anyway. Writing about your book, talking about your book, making videos about your book - endlessly! - is supposed to get people to buy your book.
That’s what they say. (Who are “they” and what are their credentials to be saying this, exactly?)
Does it work? Who knows! (Remember my motto: Nobody in publishing knows anything.)
Earlier this month, I compared the number of books I sold (versus money I earned) to other people. Are these results due to my never-ending promotion - or in spite of it?
Since I don’t have a control “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region,” it’s impossible to tell.
Maybe I’m fooling myself. Pretending that my writing for free has an effect on sales because it makes me feel like I am doing something. Like I have some control over an uncontrollable situation.
I’ve already written how book tours don’t sell books, and writing conferences don’t sell books.
I’ve asked whether videos sell books, whether newspaper and radio interviews sell books, whether promoting other authors sell books?
Now I’m wondering about writing for free.
Does anything I do make a difference? Should I keep doing it?
(Brought to you by Substack. Which I also write for free.)
What a great distillation of the questions I've been mulling over as well. (Related story: when I had an article accepted to The Henry James Review in grad school, my Russian-Jewish grandmother immediately asked me how much I was getting paid. The answer "Nothing, but it's a very big deal to be published in an academic journal" impressed her not at all.)
I agree with you about exposure, but there's also the whole "writing because we like to write" thing. I mean, I still find it pretty heady that people actually read what I write, whether the writing is free or not. Of course there are other questions: how do you make a living as a writer? Is that even possible for people who are not Jodi Picoult or Stephen King? What if you put a monetary value on your writing and no one wants to pay it? But then again, you have people like Andy Weir, who basically put The Martian on the internet for free after eleventy million publishers rejected him and look at him now.
Anyway, more questions than answers, but just wanted to say that *I*, for one, really enjoy your writing (and YouTube channel).