Russell Kirkpatrick's Journal
Sell-Outs
18-Jun-2006
I've read recently somewhere - a couple of places, actually - about authors who have 'sold out'. This is supposed to mean that, rather than writing deathless prose, they are writing what will make them the most money. Dirty sell-outs.
Have you ever written anything with the intention of making money from it? A short story? You dirty sell-out.
Come on. All writers are sell-outs. We all want to get a payoff for our work, whether in coin or in praise. There's no other motivation, surely - all right, altruism, perhaps; but in that case you're a saint and I won't be able to look you in your holy eye. For the rest of us, writing is an activity with definite rewards.
Why does this bother me? Because of the moral dimension. The tag 'sell-out' is used to brand people. It marks some as superior (those who haven't) and others as inferior (those who have). You know what? I smell hypocrisy, that's what I smell. The people who call others 'sell-outs' are those who believe their kind of writing should be getting all the money. You'd sell out if you could.
Here's your guide to sell-outs:
• literary writing: I want the right people to think I'm really clever.
• mass market paperbacks: I want lots of people to think I'm clever, and the money I get will compensate me for the criticism I get from really clever people.
Perhaps it's a matter of degree. If you get more money, you're more of a sell-out. I need someone to explain this to me: if you write for payment, how can you not be a sell-out?
I frequent the ProgArchives website, and the most common discussion there is the way in which progressive rock groups - innovative and alternative musicians from the 1970s - 'sold out' in the 1980s. The example cited is Phil Collins and Genesis.
This makes me laugh. As though it's an easy thing to think 'I know, let's write simple pop music/a bestseller and make millions.' Yeah, it's so simple everyone can do it. That's why we're all millionaires. Come on. If it were simple it would not be so valuable. Much of the value of literary fiction and progressive music is snob value. 'I belong to this exclusive (small) club and only we can understand this stuff. The masses aren't as clever as us.'
Here's a tip. Read and write what you want to, ignore those who would tell you you have bad taste, try new stuff whenever you get the chance - and enjoy yourself. And take whatever payment you're offered without any shame.
I feel better now.
Sheesh.
I'm also amused by the indignation of people who disliked one of my books. I feel like saying 'Oh, no! You've caught me out! I admit it, I deliberately wrote this book just to irritate and torment YOU. You, and you alone were my target, and the fact that thousands of others have liked the book is just an unexpected but fun side effect of the years of work I did just to play a big joke on you'.