How To Make Money Writing About Writing..or..my buck is faster than yours

           I get these emails: "How To Format Your Manuscript".  "How To Write The Perfect Query Letter."  "How To Make Six Figures Writing Copy".

          "How To" books are always a bonanza.  They work mostly on illusion.  Writer's buy WRITERS MARKET or WRITERS GUIDE TO SCREAMING SUCCESS and believe they will sell so many books about writing that they'll make a nice comfy living.

            I cannot disprove this assertion without hours of boring research, sending out questionnaires to writers who have bitten this hook and come up empty.  I wish I could return to the past, pursue that college degree in psychology, acquire a profession to backstop my creative work and structure my life according to common sense rather than unconscious rage and a relentless conviction that my talent is special. 

            I've been a fool.  BUT.  Being a fool is what life is about.  If you're not a fool for, oh, sixty or seventy percent of your life, you won't know anything about the human condition and your literary insights will be pallid. 

            These emails won't stop coming!  From Writer's Digest: GET PAID TO WRITE. THE 12 STEPS OF QUERYERS ANONYMOUS. (Querying is that essential skill at writing letters to agents and editors). WD ANNUAL WRITER'S COMPETITION ($30 entrance fee, maximum three entries permitted.  Ooohh $$$$$$).

            I am not accusing these writing entrepreneurs of bad faith.  On the contrary, I'm envying them their astute timing.  The instructional writing field is always the most lucrative when a demographic stampede is in progress, and there is right now just such a stampede in the community of writers, be they good, bad or brilliant.

            I've been a lousy internetrepreneur.  Sound it out.  I just made it up.

            Pain is any experience you would rather not be having.  I would rather not be having this experience of poverty.  It's time to go back to what I know: story telling.  I've got some beautiful stories and I hope you will download a copy and become a fan of my work.  I'm almost ready.  Be patient.