If
you weren’t a writer, what would you be?
“Dead.”
“Depressed.”
“Lost.”
Those
might be some of the responses if you queried writers on what they would do
with themselves if they couldn’t write for a living. But what careers would they contemplate if
they didn’t write?
Well,
if they are really writers, then that’s what they’d be. Even the many who work a day job and
write on the side see themselves first as writers. It’s part of our mindset and approach to
life. Being a writer is like saying you
are Black or Jewish or a man. It’s who
you are and it defines you. Even for
people who say they aren’t just a race, religion, or sexual orientation – that
they are much more – the truth is we get defined by others this way. Further, we self-identify with significant
things such as age, skin color and other demographics.
So
maybe a better question is this: If you
can’t write full-time as a writer, what would you do?
Many
already answer this question. Bloggers,
authors, and freellance writers already do other things to pay their bills. Parade issued its annual “What People Earn”
survey and it showed plenty of people who earn low, such as corrections officer
in Ocala, FL ($36,900) or a karaoke D.J.host in Greenville, SC ($25,000), and
plenty of people making great bank, including a female mixed martial artist
fighter ($6.5 million), an actor ($28.5 million) and a singer/songwriter ($80
million).
The
survey said these are some of the fastest-growing jobs (with their median salary):
Statisticians
(79,900)
Physical
therapist assistants (54,410)
Paramedics
(31,700)
Home
health aides (21,380)
Wind
turbine service technicians (48,800)
Personal
financial advisers (81,060)
App
Software Developers (95,510)
Salaries
range all over the place, based on industry, position, location, years of experience,
etc. The Screen Actors Guild says the
average salary of an actor is $52,000 and that some struggling actors may earn
as low as a grand.
Meanwhile,
you have someone who risks his life – and the lives of 30 people that he
supervises – and gets paid nothing: the volunteer fire chief in Palmyra, Missouri.
Writers
have some real skills:
·
Writing
·
Editing
·
Researching
·
Analyzing
and observing
·
Generating
Ideas
·
Making
people think, laugh, question, cry or take action
They
serve such an important function at numerous levels. Writers help communicate, clearly and
efficiently, the ideas, facts, or information one would need to learn, from a product manual to textbooks to health advice. They can be authors of books that enlighten,
inspire, entertain or inform. They can
write promotional content – both to help promote good or bad products, people, or
positions. They can write for the news
media or be a check on it. Writers draft
legal documents, legislation, and important materials. In short, writing is an art that demands a
certain talent and level of responsibility and discipline. So how much is that
worth?
Writers
rarely get paid what they believe they are worth. Those that get big bucks are looked upon with
scorn (sell outs!) or jealousy (I’m a better writer than so and so). So what would you be if you weren’t a writer?
I
would be lost – and so would those who liked to read my stuff. Or so I would like to think.
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog
are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter
@theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more
important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2016
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