Debunking Writing Myths

All Writers Are Rich

So it seems to be a universal belief that all traditional and bestselling authors are swimming in money and are as rich as the likes of Elon Musk, JK Rowling and The King. Some indie authors might be this rich too. The truth of the matter is that only only 1% of writers are truly rich. I am not in that 1% needless to say. I think this applies to the entire creative sector.

Writers make no money at all

On the other side of the spectrum, there are people who think people can’t make any money by writing. Writing is an important skill, and is used for a lot of everyday things. There are a lot of places and publications where you can get money for your writing and Vocal is one of them! Some people have had some luck on Medium and Substack, but I’ve always liked Vocal more.

3 and 4 star ratings for books are bad

I’ve seen some writers get sad when people rate their books less than 5 stars. I’ve read about Goodreads drama we’re people were angry for ratings that give 4 or 3 stars. Well I say that 4 stars is great and 3 stars is a good rating. Out of all the people that buy and read books, only a handful of them will leave reviews and comments in the book. The fact that they would go and post about it means your book did something right to give them a reaction.

All Fan Fic Writers Are Women

I think the majority of fan fic writers are women, but I’ve met a handful of writers that are also men. So that’s that debunked.

Indie vs Traditional

This will always be a long-going debate. Both have their good and bad. I’ve had a lot of experiance being indie and only rejections via the traditional route. Not many people know the other types of publishing that exist as well. There’s small presses and groups that publish their own stuff. Then there are hybrid and vanity publishers.

I don’t believe in paying to have your work published when there are so many places where you can do it for free. I think it’s fine to pay for editors and cover design if you’re indie. But with traditional publishing the money should flow to you.

Though I have actually been approached by publishers about the K-Pop Scandal. They claimed to be traditional. The offers sounded too good to be true. How can anyone promise 200 reviews, and a Hollywood style marketing campaign. One publisher even wanted me to purchase the first 200 copies so they would always make money. I declined them all because further research they all wanted me to pay either hundreds or thousands of dollars for something I can easily do myself. There’s a lot of these scam “publishers” that pry on aspiring authors. They disgust me because they are taking the work away from genuine freelancers.

Regardless of which route you go with, one thing turns out to be true: all the hard work will be down to you.

Writers write everyday

Maybe some people do. But sometimes it is not always sustainable for people to write everyday. I used to write everyday but now I just write when I get the inspiration. I guess I am lucky cause I seem to get a lot of inspiration.

You will fail if your grammar is poor

Grammar has a lot of rules. They don’t teach you all of them at school. We get taught the basics but not the differences between American, Australian and Canadian English grammar. I don’t think it’s possible to remember every single grammar rule. I’ve seen some really popular books where the grammar leaves a lot to be desired.

I had people online complain about my grammar problems and when I asked for help at school and college with grammar they said my grammar was actually good. Then again, one of the guys that complained about my grammar spelt it with an e on the end.

This is another reason why I love writing poetry and taking part in writing workshops; grammar isn’t something to be stressed about.

Once you know the rules, you can bend them to your hearts content. I don’t know if grammar is changing constantly or if people just don’t care about it like they used to. As long as the message is understood.