Frustrated Writer Frustrated by Being a Writer

Man, that's sad.

Why would anybody pay someone else to submit short stories, for which he probably won't get paid? And does he mean for his assistant to write his query letters, should he write a novel? This will never work.

What does "slightly published" mean? Let him spend the money if he has it. He isn't looking for anyone to write the stories for him. This is stuff most of us prefer to do ourselves, but if it keeps him at his word processor being creative, that's good for him, I guess.

...maybe another writer who needs the loot will take the job, allowing some good to come of this rather dubious marketing strategm.

That bloke is a man after my own heart. I love writing my novels, but I absolutely hate all of the query letter writing and trying to sell myself for publishing. So yes, if I had the money, I'd pay some dogsbody to do it for me too

Wow, that's either ingenious, or insanely desperate, depending on how you look at it. Either way, I don't think it'll work. Figuring out where to send your stuff and doing the whole query roundabout is part of becoming a writer. By sending out stories, you should be reading those publications, and learning about markets, voice, style, venue, decorum, etc. And querying isn't always about "marketing,"--sometimes it's about clarity. If you have a muddled query, odds are high that you have a muddled story. Not always the case, but I've seen it a lot.

If I had more time, I'd do the work. I don't mind it.

Unless he wrote a thriller that hits #1 this guy's not going to recoup his costs, most likely.

It sounds like he's looking for editorial help as well and $80-$100 a week won't cut it for most people who have the qualifications to do the job AND research and send out material and keep track of it all. If he's a great writer it wouldn't take much time but if he's not.....

If he can't be bothered doing the work, I hope no-one can be bothered reading it if/when it's published.

It amazes me how he's got the time to write stories but not letters.

Am I nuts?

Querying was a pain when it came down to summarizing my story, but I kinda enjoyed doing it. I liked browsing the "how to write a query" books at Barnes and Noble, thumbing through the Publisher's Marketplace for relevant agents, and driving to the post office to mail out partials and fulls. I even liked buying ink and envelopes and waiting to hear back from agents. It was all part of the process. I felt more official. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that part of it is over, but I wouldn't pay someone else to do it for me.

I'm kind of surprised that people seem to be really against this kind of thing. I agree that the pay should be higher and I also agree that writers need to stay in touch with the publishing community, but I don't feel like there's anything inherently wrong with the concept of paying someone to mail out your submissions and stuff. Anything that gives a writer more free time is cool in my book, especially since it'd be unfair to assume that the writer would automatically stop reading literary magazines and such just because s/he's not thinking about submitting to them. I don't think making SASE's is an essential part of being a writer. If the publishing world had been the way it is now since the beginning of time, who knows what great writers we'd never have heard of and what writers we'd praise in their stead?

As far as the OP's question of who's done this on either end (and in the interest of full disclosure), I have a friend who used to do a lot of similar work for people. I've never had anyone submit for me, but I did recently hire someone to research academic presses that accepted queries year-round for books of poems. I work full-time, write, and also have some freelance clients. I certainly didn't think I was "above" doing that kind of research, but I figured I may as well throw some beer money somebody's way for doing something that I not only didn't want to do, but might have gotten sick of and abandoned. The end result, I must admit, wasn't good for either of us; she forgot that I only wanted year-round submissions and spent a lot of time putting together a list of contests I'd already entered. While I knew she'd spent a lot of time on it, paying the full rate for something that wasn't what I'd asked for (and was generally unusable) didn't seem right.

I'm kind of surprised that people seem to be really against this kind of thing.

I'm with you. I mean, he's just hiring an assistant, really. If someone has the resources, why on earth would anyone begrudge him that? Unless it's just writer's envy from people who don't have the resources to do it, but would do it in a heartbeat if they did.

Of course, I don't submit my work anywhere, so you may want to consider the source on this one.

Writer hires marketer. Neither immoral nor illegal. Move on, people, nothing to see here.

I wouldn't do it because I like learning as much as possible about the publishing game, and I find that all parts of the process, from research to the physical act of stuffing the envelopes, has value.

Now, what I WOULD like is somebody to go through my research books and type up the sections I've highlighted. But I like my money better.

I wouldn't do it because I like learning as much as possible about the publishing game[.]

I used to think the same thing, until I started working in it. Now all I can say is "ick."

starrykitten said:

I'm kind of surprised that people seem to be really against this kind of thing. I agree that the pay should be higher and I also agree that writers need to stay in touch with the publishing community, but I don't feel like there's anything inherently wrong with the concept of paying someone to mail out your submissions and stuff. Anything that gives a writer more free time is cool in my book, especially since it'd be unfair to assume that the writer would automatically stop reading literary magazines and such just because s/he's not thinking about submitting to them. I don't think making SASE's is an essential part of being a writer. If the publishing world had been the way it is now since the beginning of time, who knows what great writers we'd never have heard of and what writers we'd praise in their stead?

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I agree. This is no more sinister than paying a yard care specialist to cut your grass.

He's not hiring a ghost writer. It also says nothing about editing.

"Specifically, he wants someone to work for $80 to $100 a week to market his oeuvre"


Let's look at the economics here.

If he makes, as a programmer, let's say, $30 an hour at his dayjob, works a minimum of 40 hours a week and sleeps 7 hours a night, then you've got 9 hours left over per weekday. Which sounds great, until you include your commute time, cooking/eating, bathing, cleaning, laundry, other chores, etc. It also doesn't include family time or leisure time.

Now say he can pay an assistant $15/hour to do a task that takes him the same amount of time, or longer, to do because he is not familar with it. $15/hour is a generous wage in these economic times for light research and secretarial work that can be done from home. He can
get 2 hours of labour from the assistant for what he earns doing 1 hour of his work. The result being, more time to focus on what he does best. His programming work, his writing, and to have some free time left over.

He would value the extra free time more than the money, and the assistant can do the work (probably) better. Why? Presumably because s/he is focusing exclusively on this task, and not trying to combine it with creative writing. Specialisation.

As for the pay in this case, it ranges from $10/hour ($80/8 hours)
worst-case to $16.66/hour ($100/6 hours) best-case.

The market will determine if this is a fair wage or not. If no one thinks it's fair, no one will accept the job.

This is oversimplisifed and ignores taxes and other considerations, but it sounds like a smart idea. Don't understand the implications that he's not above board for contracting out some clerical work. Besides, it creates a part-time job for someone, which is a good thing.