Feb

2

The big myth: Do what you love, the money will follow

Posted by Dan

February 2, 2009 |

We’ve all heard the nonsense that if you do what you love, the money will follow. Well, I hope we all realize that this is BS.

You can love acting all you want. The odds are terrifc that you’ll never make enough money from it to support yourself. That’s just the way it is. That’s why there are so many accountants and marketing executives out there. They don’t necessarily love tax law, right? But the money’s there.

I bring this up for a reason. I can’t stand to hear career advisors smugly tell people to find their passion and turn it into dollars. Some passions just can’t be turned into money. That old “love it and the money will come” theory doesn’t hold.

Look at me. I make my money by writing for newspapers, magazines and trade publications. Do I love it? I love writing. I love making money. But I certainly don’t love writing about erosion control or landscaping or commercial real estate. In fact, I kind of hate it.

I do, though, love writing comic books. Yes, that’s a bit geeky. But it’s incredible fun to combine words with pictures. You can do things in the comic-book format that you can’t do with any other form of story telling. I’m fairly new to the comic book world. In the last two years, I’ve written four mini-series for one independent publisher, adapted 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea into a graphic novel for another, rewrote an existing graphic novel for an aspiring comics artist and have had three of my short graphic stories purchased by different comics anthologies. My grand total payday for this two years’ worth of work? $2,300.

That’s not exactly put dinner-on-the-table money. But the comics industry is a tough one to break into, especially if you’re trying to do it as a writer who can’t draw. The industry itself is in pretty bad shape financially. There isn’t much money there.

I’m still trying, though. It’s still a thrill to write comic scripts, and a great break from the mundane non-fiction stories I have to write to make a living. But I don’t ever expect to make enough to quit my day job.

Yes, I love writing for comics. No, I dont’ expect the money to come.


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