Susie Bright on Writing and Worry

Superstar writer and TypePad blogger Susie Bright writes about the anxiety of writers as they confront the changing mechanics and economics of publishing:

Writers, musicians, filmmakers, those “artists” – we’re starting to open up a little bit to each other about how bad it is…. Our publishing world has simply gone out of business. The few publishers still operating have a new business model: Don’t. Pay. Writers. It’s interesting how the economic crisis hit book authors. Our “middle class” has been eliminated – not metaphorically, but literally. … Many of us were, or are, influential – the kind of people you say of later, “They changed my life.” Little did you know the movers and shakers were parsing food stamps…. When Conde Naste shutters its magazines, do you think it’s because all those people didn’t know how to string a sentence together? Do you imagine all those bloggers at HuffPo, Salon, Slate, Gawker, etc. are doing it because it’s a darling little hobby and maybe someday they’ll “rate” enough to get paid professionally? Look at the last issue of the New York Times Review of Books and try to guess how many of those authors will be able to pay the rent this month on their royalties. Now divide that by two. And divide again.

Read the full essay: The Season of Freakin’ Out…