UPDATE: I had to edit this, since it turned out I'd inflated my normal annual income quite a bit (I had a "temporary" raise this year.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matt Forney is now in the enviable position of supporting himself entirely through his own writing. If you too are an aspiring writer, contact Matt immediately. He'll show you how to throw off the shackles of working for the man nine to five. If you've got a sample, go to the head of the line!
300 words will net you up to $10. That doesn't sound bad at all. I write at least 300 words per day on my blog, just for fun!
Hmm, let me do the math here... It will take a few minutes cuz remember, I'm a teacher... OK, got it! I currently support myself on $35,000 a year (sad, true, and easily verifiable since I am an employee of the state). To maintain this modest income, I would need to write nearly 3000 words per day -- three or four standard length college essays -- every day of the year, with little time off for holidays, church, or good behavior.
And, yes, that does put my endless whinging about marking student essays in an entirely different perspective! In other words, I'm pretty sure my head would explode after about one week. I'm no Stephen King, that's for sure. And although it's said that Hemingway dashed off three short stories in one particularly inspired morning + afternoon, he wasn't that productive every damn day. (He had to squeeze in all that shooting, drinking, and womanizing after all.)
What kind of writing is Matt Forney doing, one wonders. Could it be this or this? I'm dying to know, but if I send him an e-mail query, he's bound to claim I'm "stalking" him again, and thwarting an enterprising young chap like himself from making an honest living.
Ah, but you see Forney doesn't need as much money as the rest of us. He has abandoned the consumerist treadmill of designer handbags and shiny gadgets and lives a zen like existence of enlightened serenity. Hence the complete lack of bitterness or resentment in his powerful prose.
ReplyDeleteOh, hang on....
I think he's writing student essays, for Academic Composition, who advertise on his blog. High value work to be proud of.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine churning out three or four cited, referenced essays a day, even if they were only lightly researched. That sounds like a positively brutal way to try to make a living.
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