Four Reasons Writers & Publishers Should Be Thankful

As unemployment in the United States hovers near nine percent this Thanksgiving, people who write or who publish have at least four things to be thankful for.

One: A writer or publisher can never be replaced by a computer anymore than a barber can.

Two: Some writers (and their publishers, obviously) are raking in the dough, perhaps you can join them.

For instance, Forbes magazine somehow gathered a list of the 10 best-compensated authors in the world for the one year period June 1, 2009 to May 31, 2010:

1.  James Patterson ($70 million)
2.  Stephenie Meyer ($40 million)
3.  Stephen King ($34 million)
4.  Danielle Steel ($32 million)
5.  Ken Follett ($20 million)
6.  Dean Koontz ($18 million)
7.  Janet Evanovich ($16 million)
8.  John Grisham ($15 million)
9.  Nicolas Sparks ($14 million)
10. J.K. Rowling ($10 million)

It is interesting that all in this top 10 are fiction writers. Nonfiction writing is easier to make a living on, but I guess if you are planning on getting on the Forbes Top Ten list, you’d better write fiction.

Three: Writing well is job security.

Even if you too aren’t on this list, but still have a day job and can write to boot, you have lots to celebrate. In the office of every business I’ve been in, from the wholesaling of wine to the publishing of books, there have been those few who are sought out by coworkers for help writing something, be it an important e-mail or an employee manual. Good writers are generally clearer thinkers and better communicators. People with these skills are, or at least should be, the last to be laid off.

Four: Content is king.

As the huge multi-national corporations battle it out over what e-reader the masses will use when reading and how that which they do read will be delivered, the demand for written material is certain to wax not wane. Printed books may be in less demand in the future, maybe even long-form prose will be, but people will not stop reading and someone has to supply the content. That is where writers and publishers come in.

An aside: Never say die.

According to a Christian Science Monitor item, Google has counted the books in the world. There are 129,864,880. When I read this, I felt the same profound insignificance I feel when I look up at the stars on clear summer nights. Then it dawned on me, while I’ll never create a star, I can write a book. Ego restored, I sat down to work on my novel.

Just a write thought