I called a local carpenter about fixing an old desk and after talking for a few minutes, he asked me if I was going to survive as a professional writer. I’m getting used to the question.  I get asked this more and more these days and a lot of people sent me this piece from a respected Canadian newspaper predicting clearly that writers like me will not survive the changes in publishing.

I  understand the question. The price of books is dropping rapidly, Amazon has a million books on its site that are either free or cost a few dollars – I just published m my own e-book “The Story Of Rose” for $2.99. It is difficult to compete with free books or books that are so cheap or done so quickly. Everybody thinks they are a writer, everybody wants to publish their own book. A number of other writers told me I should not have contributed to this evolution in books by writing an e-book  – it will soon be impossible for professional writers to live, they say. Many good writers have already stopped writing.

Writers like me once lived on our book advances, and they have shrunk dramatically or disappeared for many writers.  We also lived on royalties tied to hard-cover books sales, also shrinking rapidly. We are being asked to do more, write more, earn less. Many writers I know have vanished, looked for other work, gone broke. When I applied for a credit line last year, the bank told me they weren’t giving loans to professional writers.  The prospects, they said, were not good. Their projections suggested I would not be able to pay them back. Maria and I have all kinds of reasons for moving to our New Bedlam Farm, but I won’t lie about  it- one is to accept the reality of changes, of greater competition, of  declining income. And my income has already declined, as I have written,  even as my expenses – the blog, photography, videos, have steadily risen. And I am one of the luckiest ones – I write bestsellers, I have a loyal and expanding fan base and long list of backlist books still in print. I hate to think of the less fortunate writers or the young ones starting out. They are not so fortunate, and have many fewer options than I do.

I suppose it’s never good when people ask you if you will survive. Writers have always told struggle stories about themselves, and digital publishing is the new struggle story, the new drama. When I go online and look into bookstores, I don’t see much evidence that writers are disappearing. They are being asked to change. And they are changing. Or not.

And to the question.  Am I going to survive? I am writing e-books, expanding the blog, selling notecards and photos, using social media like Facebook, writing children’s books, changing the tone and focus of my paper books.  I am meeting with my web designers next week to see if there is some way to tastefully incorporate ads in the website so I can continue to offer it and the photographs for free.

Yes, I will survive, absolutely. So will other professional writers.  Good writing is different from free books on Amazon. Good writing is edited, marketed, rejected and polished, re-done and done again. It has to stand the test of time, survive the marketplace, touch hearts and minds and emotions to be valuable. It has always existed, it will always exist, or so I believe. Good writing comes from particular kinds of minds, not just any mind. Is it tougher for me? Yes. It is tougher for everyone. And there is much greater competition for my words.  I do not believe you can ask people not to buy cheap or free books.  I do not believe this can possibly ultimately be bad for writing or books, whatever form they come in. The marketplace has its own ideology and it cannot be altered because it changes in ways we might not like. Nor it is appropriate for me to complain about a reality that exists for everyone American who is not in the top tier – incomes are declining, it is tougher to make money, we have to think differently about our lives.

I believe in my creative skills. I do not believe everyone can do what I do, or that a .99 book on Amazon is equivalent to my books. I have wanted to be a professional writer since I was five, and I work hard at it every day of my life, and I am proud of what I do. No one outside of my life can tell me what I can be or not be. I believe that is up to me.  Next year, and the year after that, and for some years beyond, I will be here, writing my books, taking my photos, a writer at last and for good, even if I end up living in a barn. That would make a pretty good book, now that I think about it.