A few weeks ago I was approached by someone on
Twitter asking if I wanted to contribute to an ebook where writers write about their marketing experiences and give tips on how to market books better.  All the contributors would then promote the ebook and take a cut of the profits.

On the face of it, this sounds like a good business model: lots of people contributing to something that lots of people then market and everyon
e shares in the profits.  And it’s scalable too, because you can produce a whole series on ever aspect of writing – maybe even branch out into comics and film.  The possibilities are endless.

At first I was flattered that I had been asked.  Then reality struck: this is just another way for writers to make money from fellow writers, or even worse, wannabe writers.  This is jumping on the back of the gold rush and making profit by sucking the soul out of those searching for creative gold.

Let me tell you that making a living out of novel writing is hard – anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something.  Call me stupid, and the person who offered me this opportunity probably will, but I prefer to make my living out of actually crafting novels.  Which is why all the writing tips and ‘how to articles’ on this site are free.

It seems that anyone who completes the first draft of a book can call themselves an expert, and write an ebook to sell to other would be writers.  In my humble opinion, most of these books are not worth the money you pay for them.  There are a few brilliant exceptions, but only a handful.  A writing tutor can not only get to the heart of the craft, but they can inspire others.  The good ones invariably give lots of advice away for free to new and wannabe writers, because they know how hard it is.

My advice?  Join a library, read what you can for free to get you started.  Surf the internet, there is loads of valuable free advice available from expert writers.  If you have a specific problem with your writing, save your money for a writing cours,e where you can get specific one-to-one advice from a tutor who reads your work.

Sorry, this turned into a bit of a rant.Nick