It's A Glamour Profession

Most folks think of writing as a glamor profession. The fact is salaried journalists sulked away as one of the bottom four least respected professions in a recent survey. Their pay sucked too; averaging $35,000 annually - less than your average garbageman.

Freelance writers are even worse off. I belong to a bunch of writers' groups. Most writers have to work day jobs to support their writing habits - even writers with several books out. I've met some of them who will work for free, or a penny a word. They say they do it, "Just to get their name out".

Would a doctor do that? Or a stockbroker?

I thought the days of indentured servants were long gone...

(Hey, on another note, I got excited when I checked Amazon.com and found Crimes Against Commerce had squeezed in something like a millionth place in line. Other books were sitting at the tens of million. Mine had been to Harvard - and WNBC called yesterday... they want to review it.

Who said an Ivy League education didn't mean anything...)

If you really want to write, and you really want to make a living at it, you're going to wind up working at, or freelancing for, trade magazines. Take a look at www.woodenhorsepub.com . This is your future.

Scary, huh? This is Stretch Walker's world in Crimes Against Commerce. These are the invisible guys in journalism nobody thinks about. They're also the guys who make twice as much money as "traditional" journalists.

If you want to know more about them, read Page 62 of Crimes Against Commerce. Tobin pretty much spells out the heart and soul of trade publishing.

He's a dog's dog lined up to be gassed.