New post: Why I don't take career advice from Cory Doctorow http://ow.ly/4yzb6

@david_hewson For the record, my speaking income is less than 10% of my writing income.

@doctorow That's 10% more than any general fiction writer can make

@david_hewson Little Brother hit the NYT bestseller list in pbk and hardcover; my next novel drew a mid-6-fig advance.

@david_hewson However you feel about my sales strategies, it's untrue that I'm a "professional speaker" with a sideline in writing

@doctorow Congratulations! But we are in different markets. And there is only 1 Cory Doctorow

@david_hewson I don't think that's true. It's very common for writers to draw fees for speaking - a tradition stretching back to Dickens

@david_hewson You cite Scalzi; by his account, he earns as much from film options and TV consultancy as he does frm novels; does he "count"?

@david_hewson Are there other artists who are interchangeable? Are there more than one David Hewsons?

@doctorow Literary festivals - only places most writers can talk - pay $250 or so if you're lucky.

@doctorow Where did I say you were a professional speaker with a sideline in writing?

@david_hewson Literary festivals have offered me everything from $0 to $10K to appear. YA writers are routinely paid $500-$1000 by schools

@david_hewson I don't charge schools, for the record.

@doctorow Well there's Paul David Hewson but that's another story. I think your model is your model. Not one for many others

@doctorow Of course Scalzi counts. You count. But most writers don't or can't have multi-strand careers

@doctorow Schools in the UK don't have that kind of money for writers. I always talk for free

@david_hewson "Comparing novelists to... a professional speaker like Doctorow is ridiculous" .http://tinyurl.com/5sm3kem

@david_hewson Is there a "model that works for many writers"? I know hundreds of writers and none of them do it the same way

@david_hewson Arthur C Clarke invented GPS. Larry Niven's grandad was an oil baron. Asimov could write 5 books a year. Pohl edited.

@doctorow Couldn't agree more - unfortunately you're constantly cited as THE model for the rest of us. Not yr fault I agree

@david_hewson I've said before, if you don't want to embrace copying, it's up to you. BUT I can't imagine how anyone plans to reduce copying

@david_hewson And most of the plans I've heard for reducing copying start at daft and end at totalitarian (and daft)

@doctorow Doesn’t mean ALL writers have to do something else as well tho does it?

@doctorow Piracy is a different subject. I was talking about career models. You have a v successful one. Wdn't work for lots of us

@david_hewson surely not. But available evidence suggests that writers without a second string to their bow are the exception

@david_hewson not least because it gives them something to write about

@doctorow Most writers I know are professional and do nothing else. Agree we should get out more tho

@david_hewson we know different sorts of writers. In sf it's very common

@doctorow I think SF is a world of its own. You couldn't have done what you've done in crime or mystery IMHO

@doctorow In SF you have a very strong and are I say closed sense of community. Pretty unique really

Updated last post to take in some of the interesting exchanges with @doctorow here. Sorry for earlier url screwup http://ow.ly/4yCse

@doctorow Sorry - I got that pro speaker thing wrong and have corrected it

@doctorow @david_hewson By Scalzi's account over two thirds of his income comes from writing books+columns. http://bit.ly/i9UPz0

@doctorow @david_hewson The TV income has gone and the film option was a one off. It's hardly an example of a reliable revenue stream

@fakebaldur @david_hewson Why does it matter if it's reliable? It's not as though being a freelance speaker comes with a schedule of earning

@david_hewson Though Hiaassen kept his newspaper job long after he was a megabestseller; Leonard split his time between screen & books

@fakebaldur Good point. Media deals alway sound good but often aren't.

@david_hewson Christie made a fortune from film and theatrical licenses; etc etc

@fakebaldur To be honest I don't really know much about Scalzi - but his bingo card is genius

@doctorow Doesn't matter how you earn your money. Point is I don't think many writers have such opportunities

@doctorow Just checked UK fiction bestseller lists. Only common second career there is death

@david_hewson That's true, but once you're out in the frontlist, those opportunities multiply

@doctorow Yeah, but dude, lots of writers couldn't give a presentation if their lives depended on it. Not everyone has the 2ndary skills...

@doctorow Only if you're willing to write stuff that fits the frontlist

@pages2type SF world is male, close and geeky and fits that kind of thing. Cd never work in most other fields

@doctorow @david_hewson I was just correcting a point. Not taking sides in the debate.

@Harkaway Not every writer is a puppeteer, but Mary Robinette Kowal is. Not every writer is a futurist, but Karl Schroeder is.

@Harkaway Not every writer is a musician and broadcaster, but Ellen Kushner is. Not every writer teaches at MIT, but Joe Haldeman does.

@Harkaway Not every writer is a design critic, but Bruce Sterling is. Not every writer invents ARGs, but Sean Stewart did.

@Harkaway Not every writer is an editor, but Kate Wilhelm and Damon Knight were/are. Not every writer is a writerinresidence, bt Merrill was

@Harkaway Not every writer does comics but Gaiman and Ellis are. Not every writer works for NASA but Geoff does.

@doctorow @Harkaway Kushner's last book was 2006. Haldeman's 2004.

@Harkaway I could go on for 500 tweets. Every writer is different. That's what the arts are: people doing non-repeatable, different things

@david_hewson @Harkaway No, Kushner and Haldeman both have books scheduled this year.

@doctorow Glad to hear it - but mainstream fiction authors tend to produce 1 book a year

@doctorow And those who are going the self pub route are going to have to write more than that if they want to eat

@david_hewson Neal Stephenson, William Gibson and EL Doctorow all fail that definition (and all have other careers). Aren't they mainstream?

@david_hewson EL Doctorow teaches. Neal Stephenson works for tech startups.

@doctorow & these are personable, talented people. That does not mean every writer does or even should possess 2ndary saleable skills.

@doctorow Exceptions not rule. Most frontlist general mystery/thriller/crime authors run to an annual rhythm

@doctorow my concern is that you measure others by yourself, and you are, frankly, exceptional.

@Harkaway isn't that normal in the arts? In what universe have unexceptional artists ever had an expectation of a living?

@doctorow That's their choice. But trust me if you're writing mystery/thriller/crime a book a year is expected, especially series

@doctorow @Harkaway Big argument for writers stepping away from public eye altogether & letting books speak instead

@Harkaway people can learn to present/speak/talk. and authors should do so, so they can capitalise on speaking opps. cc @doctorow

@david_hewson that may be so (tho not Hiassen or many other well loved successful writers), but it's not the rule across fiction

@david_hewson eg Atwood, Koja, Gaiman, Doctorow, Foster Wallace, and many many orhers

@david_hewson @Harkaway huh? Because all writers can't speak none should? I'm not as funny as Pratchett, should he stop writing humor?

@david_hewson @Harkaway shall writers disavow Dickens & Twain because they didn't let the books speak for themselves?

@doctorow Thriller/mystery/crime is the frontlist. 7/10 on bestseller list. All annual authors or more (if alive) http://ow.ly/4yGFu

@Suw @harkaway @doctorow OTOH, making sure people can make a living by doing what they're best at incentivises good work.

@david_hewson 7/10 this week. Or are you saying 70% of frontlist writers write crime?

@fakebaldur @Suw @harkaway sounds like you're arguing for more opportunities for writers who are also good at speaking

@doctorow You don't think it's possible for a person to be exceptional in only one way?

@doctorow If you look at UK and US bestseller lists you'll find them dominated by crime/thriller/mystery

@Suw @doctorow Up to a point, I think, but so much of presentation is about personality & energy. Some are suited, some less so.

@fakebaldur @Suw @harkaway if writers produce disappointing followups to successful books, does that mean we gave them too much money?

@doctorow The reverse: because some writers can speak doesn't mean all writers must.

@doctorow @Harkaway Why would you have to disavow them? Just wonder whether the cult of celebrity's gone a bit far in books to be honest

@doctorow @Harkaway By which I mean we're all expected to be great presenters and public speakers even if we're not

@doctorow @suw @harkaway Arguing against opportunities is silly, no matter the context.

@Harkaway I think that campaigning for full employment for unexceptional artists is an unrewarding and improbable undertaking

@david_hewson well, yes, if there's a genre where writers produce at 2-4x other genres then on any day there's more of that genre...

@doctorow @suw @harkaway Depends entirely on the writer, book, followup, amount and context (IOW, way too vague a question).

@doctorow In that we completely agree. But I was asking whether it was possible to be massively talented as a writer and nothing else...?

@david_hewson but it doesn't follow that most professional WRITERS are in that genre.

@doctorow or not enough editorial direction? Certainly seems like that to me sometimes.

@Harkaway there will always be a bell curve. but the more strings to an author's bow, the more likely they will make a living. cc @doctorow

@david_hewson @Harkaway gone a bit far? Like there was some edenic moment where writers' personalities didn't matter? Before Dickens?

@Harkaway and you can learn to fake a lot of what people assume is innate. ask any comedian.

@Harkaway sure, but probably not a commercially successful one (unless at a minimum you are married 2 someone who is smart about business)

“@Suw: there will always be a bell curve. but the more strings to an author's bow, the more likely they will make a living.” Absolutely true

@doctorow Sooo. at that point the discussion is purely pragmatic; we're not designing a better world but learning to profit in a crappy one?

@Suw True enough, though I think there are limits and consequences...

Expecting writers to earn a living talking or consulting *instead* of writing is the creative industries' version of the Peter Principle

@Harkaway there always are, good and bad. but the days of a monoculture career are pretty much over.