Ernie ZelinskiErnie J. Zelinski, self-identified as “The Prosperity Guy,” has just responded to Paul St John Mackintosh’s thoughtful post headlined Canadian writers are also facing author income crisis.

I’m glad to see TPG speaking his mind. That’s what the TeleRead comments section is for. Now here’s my own take:

Congratulations on all your successes, Ernie. But, yes, despite your denials to the contrary, you are lucky. Books on "prosperity" and the like can be much easier to push than, say, novels of a literary kind.

What’s more, you may be a more talented promoter than many of the people out there—including some literary geniuses.

Inspirational quotes and specific tips can take writers only so far, even those with commercial works. Here’s one example. YouTube and other social media can actually hurt in some ways. So often they reward writers with better speaking voices than writing ones (no, I don’t know about your own speaking voice, so don’t take this personally).

Money and time for promo, hardly the same as creativity, will also matter. Well-off writers can spend $20,000 or more to push their books and hire a media-smart pro. The nonaffluent still have a chance. It’s just a much smaller one.

At the same time let me emphasize that it isn’t the government’s job or anyone else’s to guarantee writers a certain living standard. I’m just saying that luck counts endlessly. Of course, a more level playing field could help authors in their dealings with giant conglomerates. Too bad the U.S. Congress and similar legislative bodies are too well-bought to act on these issues.

Meanwhile, Ernie, you’re welcome for the double dip of publicity that TeleRead has given you through the comments section and the current post. Couldn’t resist. I just don’t like the idea of well-off guys like you implicitly knocking brilliant writers without the tail winds you’ve enjoyed. Care to rethink your comments? Thanks.

3 COMMENTS

  1. I once attended a meeting of a medical writer’s association that was most enlightening. That night they had two speakers.

    1. A very rich ghost writer of bestselling diet books. The key to his success , he said, was finding someone with a name and medical credentials and writing a book making claims of success. Whether the diet actually worked concerned him not in the slightest.

    2. A struggling writer of articles for science magazines. He worked so long on his articles, getting them right, and was paid so little that he admitted he’d be starving but for the income his wife, a librarian, brought home.

    In short, one was in it for the money, while the other had a mission. Most authors fall somewhere in between the two. Luck is still a factor, but if you aim at money you are more likely to get rich than if you have a mission in mind.

  2. > Luck is still a factor, but if you aim at money you are more likely to get rich than if you have a mission in mind.

    Exactly, Mike. But if money’s so important, why even be a writer? Chance are you’ll do better in, say, real estate. Oh, yes, maybe there’s the glamor. But if you’re rich enough, you can always buy it.

    In the end, I guess, many will strive for balance. That’s what we’re trying for, here at TeleRead. Those post about tech will ideally help pay for those wonderful book reviews that Paul St John Mackintosh turns out. The wonder of Paul is that he excels at both kinds of writing. (Of course, it helps to be passionate about both lit and tech!)

    David

  3. Here are a few observations by people much smarter and much more successful than me to put “luck” in proper perspective:

    “All successful men have agreed in one thing, — they were causationists. They believed that things went not by luck, but by law; that there was not a weak or a cracked link in the chain that joins the first and last of things.”
    — Ralph Waldo Emerson

    “The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.”
    — Joyce Carol Oates

    “Destiny is a good thing to accept when it’s going your way. When it isn’t, don’t
    call it destiny; call it injustice, treachery, or simple bad luck.”
    — Joseph Heller

    “People always call it luck when you’ve acted more sensibly than they have.”
    — Anne Tyler

    “We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?”
    — Jean Cocteau

    “All of us have bad luck and good luck. The man who persists through the bad luck — who keeps right on going — is the man who is there when the good luck comes — and is ready to receive it.”
    — Robert Collier

    “Chance is the one thing you can’t buy. You have to pay for it and you have to pay for it with your life, spending a lot of time, you pay for it with time, not the wasting of time but the spending of time.”
    — Robert Doisneau

    “I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it. The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances gets on.”
    — Samuel Goldwyn

    “The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.”
    — Douglas Macarthur

    “Luck can often mean simple taking advantage of a situation at the right moment, It is possible to ”make” your luck by being always prepared.”
    — Michael Korda

    “Luck is being in the right place at the right time, but location and timing are to some extent under our control.”
    — Natasha Josefowitz

    “Luck, bad if not good, will always be with us. But it has a way of favoring the intelligent and showing its back to the stupid.”
    — John Dewey

    “The only good luck many great men ever had was being born with the ability and determination to overcome bad luck.”
    — Channing Pollock

    Incidentally, I have another book in the works that through my creativity I can manifest selling over 100,000 copies and making me over $500,000 in pretax profits. Of course, people will say that I am lucky when this eventually happens. (I won’t mention the name of it here since you will take credit for having promoted it.)

    Having said that, money is not my only motivator. I also like making a difference in people’s lives, which I know I have by the thousands of letters, emails, and phone calls I have received about my books.

    “The best effect of any book,” stated Thomas Carlyle, “is that it excites the reader to self-activity.” Here is one of my favorite examples of why I know my books do just that: I received this email in mid-2014 from Ian Swales, who was a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom at the time:

    “Hi Ernie,

    Don’t know if you’ll get this but thought you might be interested in my little story. Working as a chemical industry executive in my late 30’s I decided to retire at age 50 ( in 2003). During the 90’s I found “Joy of not Working” on a business trip to the States. Inspired by you, and also using the book “Your Money or Your Life” to think about finance, I hit my goal. In fact I stopped working full time at age 46.

    After 50 I was having a great time doing just a little well paid work and really enjoying life. I had done The Leisure Tree [now called The Get-a-Life Tree} and on “activities I have enjoyed before” I put politics. It was 20 years before. Eventually I did this in a more purposeful way and, because your methods gave me time to campaign, I got the most startling result of the UK 2010 General Election and found myself in parliament as a Liberal Democrat representing my home town. I got the biggest swing between the main parties in the UK since the Second World War!

    It’s hard work but I have been able to do major things for my community and done things and met people I could only dream about. Living in the moment is one skill I constantly have to practice.

    I guess you won’t be surprised at the next bit. I am quitting in 2015, at age 62, and have just reread your book to help me get the most out of the next stage of my life!

    Thanks again for what you have done.

    I don’t need a long reply but would just be interested to know that you got the message. Feel free to use me as a case study! If so and you need any more background just ask.

    Best wishes
    Ian Swales MP”

    In short, I have received thousands of responses such as this one due to my creativity and resourcefulness put into writing books that readers actually want to buy and read. You can call that luck. I call it taking 100 percent responsibility for my prosperity and success in life.

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