I do wonder why people make artistic, creative work into a "business"? There are much more lucrative and less soul crushing ways of chasing wealth and business.
Art is probably the most difficult and unrewarding field to try to make into a business. Of course it can be done, but firstly the odds of success are bad, and secondly you destroy the point of the thing the process by making money the goal.
Why not start an actual business if you're business-minded? Why grift with art?
They want to be authors because they think it's prestigious. When nobody cares about your art the closest thing to honors is declaring success through wealth. Then later they realized easiest way to do that is to just not write.
By the way there was a composer from the 20th century named Charles Ives who started an insurance company because of what you say. Became well known as an older man who could do what he wanted as an artist.
I'm one of those rare people who has heard of Mark Dawson, having come across him through my own adventures in self-publishing over the last few years, where he is a big name. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out! I'm a bit shocked, to be honest.
I mostly shocked because it seems like more effort.
I'm not really shocked that an indie author would steal. Those author groups were full of people ready to jump on AI as a way to avoid writing their books, as I talk about in the next article.
Yes, I agree. It seems like most people willing to defend him - along the lines of, "Well, even if he has plagiarised, what's wrong with that? We all do it?", etc - are most concerned with cutting similar corners and maximising output. I don't want to prejudge, but it doesn't look good. I'm with you: write for pleasure, to make something meaningful, beautiful. You can still do that and have half an eye on selling and marketing, if that's important to you. I look forward to your next article!
He's selling the idea of success. That's spot on. I always tell authors to look to see where these so-called gurus are making their money. Are they making money by selling fictional books, or by selling courses that teach you how to sell books? Chances are, it's the latter, not the former. What is really sad is, authors don't seem to care. They'll happily keep buying his out-dated information and defend him because they would rather lose their entire life savings than admit they were taken in by a scam. In this world, it's all about the money and less about the ethics.
Prestige is a big part, too. People aren't just buying his idea of success, they are trying to buy their own idea of prestige, which makes it all the more sad when they defend how they have "invested" their money to little or no return. It's really hard to admit you got taken in, but it's happened to all of us at some point.
"And do those “successful” books have any impact on anyone?"
The fact that this whole controversy has barely been a blip on the radar should say it all. It's all smoke and mirrors. No one cares about any of this beyond making the usual condemnations of plagiarism before then moving on to something else. "Six million books sold" and there's no mass outrage or statement from the book group?
Really puts into perspective about what "successful" means in this industry and how big it actually isn't.
Truly, I don't think any of them enjoy writing books.
If you're not complaining about plagiarism and avoiding your manuscript, you're looking for the next clever way to sell a book without having to go through the trouble of writing one.
It also says a lot that the only mainstream article I could find about Mark Dawson was a guardian article pointing out that he bought his own books to increase his sales rank.
I do wonder why people make artistic, creative work into a "business"? There are much more lucrative and less soul crushing ways of chasing wealth and business.
Art is probably the most difficult and unrewarding field to try to make into a business. Of course it can be done, but firstly the odds of success are bad, and secondly you destroy the point of the thing the process by making money the goal.
Why not start an actual business if you're business-minded? Why grift with art?
They want to be authors because they think it's prestigious. When nobody cares about your art the closest thing to honors is declaring success through wealth. Then later they realized easiest way to do that is to just not write.
By the way there was a composer from the 20th century named Charles Ives who started an insurance company because of what you say. Became well known as an older man who could do what he wanted as an artist.
I'm one of those rare people who has heard of Mark Dawson, having come across him through my own adventures in self-publishing over the last few years, where he is a big name. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out! I'm a bit shocked, to be honest.
I mostly shocked because it seems like more effort.
I'm not really shocked that an indie author would steal. Those author groups were full of people ready to jump on AI as a way to avoid writing their books, as I talk about in the next article.
Yes, I agree. It seems like most people willing to defend him - along the lines of, "Well, even if he has plagiarised, what's wrong with that? We all do it?", etc - are most concerned with cutting similar corners and maximising output. I don't want to prejudge, but it doesn't look good. I'm with you: write for pleasure, to make something meaningful, beautiful. You can still do that and have half an eye on selling and marketing, if that's important to you. I look forward to your next article!
Here it is
https://davidvstewart.substack.com/p/not-that-anything-but-writing
Thanks, David. Will read.
He's selling the idea of success. That's spot on. I always tell authors to look to see where these so-called gurus are making their money. Are they making money by selling fictional books, or by selling courses that teach you how to sell books? Chances are, it's the latter, not the former. What is really sad is, authors don't seem to care. They'll happily keep buying his out-dated information and defend him because they would rather lose their entire life savings than admit they were taken in by a scam. In this world, it's all about the money and less about the ethics.
110%
Prestige is a big part, too. People aren't just buying his idea of success, they are trying to buy their own idea of prestige, which makes it all the more sad when they defend how they have "invested" their money to little or no return. It's really hard to admit you got taken in, but it's happened to all of us at some point.
"And do those “successful” books have any impact on anyone?"
The fact that this whole controversy has barely been a blip on the radar should say it all. It's all smoke and mirrors. No one cares about any of this beyond making the usual condemnations of plagiarism before then moving on to something else. "Six million books sold" and there's no mass outrage or statement from the book group?
Really puts into perspective about what "successful" means in this industry and how big it actually isn't.
Truly, I don't think any of them enjoy writing books.
If you're not complaining about plagiarism and avoiding your manuscript, you're looking for the next clever way to sell a book without having to go through the trouble of writing one.
It also says a lot that the only mainstream article I could find about Mark Dawson was a guardian article pointing out that he bought his own books to increase his sales rank.
This is a good look at the actual claims. https://medium.com/illumination/mark-dawson-the-million-dollar-king-of-self-publishing-accused-of-plagiarism-793a0997798f
Dawson’s grifter New Agey “influencer” energy gave me douche chills from day 1. Excellent article and accompanying YouTube video.