Too many writers, not enough words

I agree!! I have been a freelance writer for just about 10 years and it burns my butt when I see or hear people claim to be great writers and have made about a $1.50 in their entire 'career.' An ex boyfriend of mine used to claim to be this big prolific writer, with 'a ton of stuff in the works,' nothing ever published and a certificate from a website that claimed he won an award for his writing. The more he proclaimed, the more aggravated I got, the easier it was to write an outstanding published piece and boot his no-talent rear-end to the curb! I will still write and hope that the public will be able to easily seperate the good writers from those who can type.

I often feel that I am writing words that no one reads. I often feel that I speak and no one listens. I make them listen. I can't MAKE them read, but I try my hardest to keep them reading. I'm a person, I know what people like. I know if i write something good or not, if I do, it will appeal to me. If it's no good, I'll probably just throw it out. I think, most of the time, people just think too hard. It happens to me too. Most of my best works are written while falling asleep. I've always desired more control over my subconscious, I used to have a lot of interest in tapping its abilities. I would keep a record of my dreams, I would take 5-htp to enhance my dreams ect. I wish i still had that kind of time.. It's peoples sated hunger for knowledge, learning. It's peoples lack of fascination, appreciation of simple, smaller things. People feel like they've done enough, they're doing enough. No one is an over-achiever anymore. There is no fight left in writers today, no competitive nature. They apparently don't know, their work could earn a lot more. People settle to easily.

It's sad that so many writers are willing to sell themselves short. But to be fair, learning the business of writing has been a difficult endeavor until recently. Everything was kept hush-hush by the gate-keepers of the world. There was this wall that an inexperienced writer had to hurdle just to find out how the industry worked. Even now, what is adequate pay for an article or job, what's the industry standard? Where can you find that information? $6.00 for a 1000 words is laughable, and I feel you. Too many people think that good enough is all that is required to be a writer and some of the sites out there feed into that. It's a win-win for the site. Lots of junk, but those few gems are worth their weight in gold. As writers, we should work hard for form cooperative groups where things like money are discussed freely. How much should we be looking for? What should we be doing to improve ourselves? Who is out there who will help lift the veil? Holding each other accountable while supporting each other will go a long way to boosting the importance of the craft.

It is like any other business with supply and demand. I was reading a few days ago the lot of a photographer not getting the large remuneration for his work because of the photo micro sites selling photos for a dollar or two. It would seem the internet has spawned a need for a lot of writing to fill content of websites that is short and easy to read, passable in grammar and spelling and inexpensive. What is a writer to do, sell their work at the going market rate which is nothing like it once was, or to hold out for the big money which will not necessary be forthcoming. Pride does not put food on the table. I am not sure the web translator is a good way to do English writing. One gets a sort of Googlish that approximates English but never quite does the job correctly. MyLot is doing just what you lament now. Some of those writing jobs while requiring a certain level of competence and content, they are not Hemmingway nor Shakespeare, but make no pretense to be.

Bravo! I write for a living too and it's so sad to watch the industry being killed this way. This is exactly what's been happening in the last year or two. The freelance writing industry has slumped to new lows as new writers throw a few unpolished sentences together to earn 50 cents and call themselves "Professional Freelance Writers". It's a joke. The best part about their low-quality, poorly written drivel is that people ARE starting to notice. My own clients have noticed that even though I charge a LOT more than these pathetic newbies charging pennies, they're getting good quality work so they're happy to stay. Publishers notice the same thing. Stay firm and don't give in to the low-paying, revenue-share, un-edited drivel mentality and you'll find your own writing stands out from the crowd easily :)

How long have you been a writer? Freelancing has opened up to a wider audience so to speak but prior to sites like helium and the like there was plenty of competition for writers. Regular print columns (offline) at one time paid as little as $10 and payment had nothing to do with length. Writers have always felt underpaid and pre-internet this is the reason for the rise in self-publishing. I am not championing these revenue sharing sites but there are a lot of good things about them, particularly for aspiring writers. Seasoned pros should have no problem receiving upfront payment for quality writing. I have seen discussions here on where people are showing it's possible to make as much as $1,000 per week online from writing. Pre-intnernet I would have said that was only achievable by a very small amount of people with name recognitio. (Usually those with agents.)

Online writers are paid less. You can earn more from the print media but requires lot of work. It is true that amount paid for articles written online is decreasing. So many writers willing to work for cheap.

Writers often write what they find meaningful and creative, but the readers' taste is different. Nowadays reading culture is degraded because people have no much time to read and they like to read something simple, such as a novel with happy ending or a guide book with comprehensive indications, even thay can't distinguish between a book and a literature work. For the writers, recently they're too many but it's hard to find a great thought like in the classic literature. And I think the hard threshold of today writers is trying to escape from the shadow of predecessors and to follow the willing of readers in the same time. Sorry if my words are offensive.

You are the person whom I can say that you know each and every thing. You are 100% right but main thing is what we can do. It is our fate and we have to accept this.

That is likely a globalisation issue. US$1 is $1.50 Singapore dollars. If anyone offers me US$6 for 1,000 words article, forget it, I will not do it. S$9 is not even enough for me to drink a cup of coffee and have a piece of cake in Coffee Bean. But US$1 is equal to 6.8 China Yuan Renminbi, So US$6 is more than enough to pay for 3 square meals and rental and whatever. 2 articles at such rate is enough to support a family in China, especially those living in cheaper areas.

Welcome to Mylot, first, very sad to hear that. You should try here, because they have many paying system and you can get more than a normal writer provided you have more sub-writers and posting more questions. Say for a start, you won't make much out of it but in the later stage you can make not more than $50 a day. You make your own calculation and make up your mind. Happy Mylotting.

Too many writers, not enough words. I think that there are enough words but one must learn how to use them in the correct content, that is where it get to be challenging. I'm glad that you feel better but writing is something that something that you have to have a passion for. If you are doing it just to make money. You will probably never get the complete satisfaction from it that you are seeking....... If you would do it for free then it's probably something that you love doing.....This is all that's on my mind right now...... I'm going to give this a break and come back to it later on. PS: I always feel like whatever we right down, it is alive and someone somewhere will read it.......That is why one must be careful to write what he or she mean........ Just a thought.

I agree in a way. I love to write but so many job offers are for say 10 articles a day on one subject. Is that quantity or quality. And how can a writer possibly do that unless they have a group of writers. I guess I don't write that fast or there are alot of them out there that can write way better than I can. And for so little pay.

I can totally understand where you are coming from. The market is indeed crawling with "writers" willing to have their talents bought for a mere couple of dollars, because they are happy with whatever they can get nowadays. It is for this reason I have chosen not to make writing a part of my livelihood, lest it lose what charm it still holds for me.

Does it irk you that good writers sell themselves short and accept too little for their work or that bad writers are saturating the web with stuff that is poorly written?

Sigh. Well I guess someone out there was reading my words after all. In fact he read them and liked them so much he stole them. All of them. He posted every single post on my blog onto his own blog and said it was his. (yes, he even copied the post that says "Hi, My name is Bianca"...) http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2009/04/plagiarism-is-theft.html

Yes, I agree and tell you that simply just this is what is undercurrent and overt too. Nice thought.

many writers count quantity ,not quality. they just write few words on their articles . the quality of their articles can not be guaranteed .