Can You Make Money Writing Novels?

Can anyone write novels?

There are no educational or social requirements to becoming a novelist. Education helps you develop writing skills and get involved in the community of writing, but it is not a requirement for success. The main requirement is that you write a novel. The better written and more marketable your novel is, the better your chances. In the end, the elements that lead to the successful marketing of a novel have little to do with educational or social background.

What types of novels sell well?

Genre novels tend to be the easiest to market. There is a built-in audience for genres such as romance, horror, children, mystery, science fiction, fantasy and thriller. A new genre, chick-lit, in which the protagonist is a modern single woman experiencing relationship and career issues, is currently popular. Novels that fall outside of these genres aren’t necessarily doomed, but they are harder to market, and most major publishing houses are looking to publish novels that they are confident they can sell in great numbers.

How do I find a publisher?

There are many small and mid-sized publishers who are open to new writers. The problem with smaller publishers is that they don’t have the money and clout of a major publisher. Typically they will publish a print run of about 5000 books and try to sell those before they print more copies. Your chances of getting published with a smaller publisher is better (though you are still competing against many other novelists) but few of them can bring you the royalties required to make a living. Major publishers are the ones that can bring you big sales. It is harder to get a major publisher to notice you, but it isn’t impossible.

Typically a writer is represented by a literary agent. An agent is someone who has read your book and believes that the book is marketable enough for them to sell it to a publisher. They take advantage of whatever connections they have in the publishing industry to get your book read by acquiring editors, who decide what books their publishing company should publish. The acquiring editor then makes a proposal to their board of editors (or whoever else has final authority) and if all goes well you get your book published.

How many novels do I have to sell to make money?

Here is where you run into trouble. While there are many, many variables involved in how much a writer makes when his or her novel is published, a good rule of thumb for estimating your profits is a dollar a book. That means that you would have to sell 50,000 books a year in order to earn a solid living. While there are some people who publish multiple books a year, the typical novelist manages to produce a single book a year, so you would have to sell 50,000 copies of each book you publish, assuming that you find a publisher for your books.

While the Stephen Kings and J.K. Rowlings of this world have no trouble selling millions of books, the typical novel sells about 5000 to 10,000 copies. Less than ten percent of published novelists manage to sell 50,000 copies or more of their book, and selling 50,000 copies of a book in no way guarantees that you will find a publisher for your next book. Major publishers are looking for big wins. They want to sell hundreds of thousands of copies, and they are going to stick with the writers they think will deliver them those numbers. Keep in mind as well, that the delay between having a book accepted for publication and getting that book published is generally about two years and often longer. That is a long time to wait to see profits from a book.

Are there other ways for novelists to make money?

Many novelists hold full-time jobs in publishing or education. These jobs provide their main income. Novelists can make some money by giving readings or getting paid to attend writer’s conferences. A novel can also get sold to a movie studio. Whether the novel gets made into a movie or not, the novelist gets paid a certain amount. If the novel becomes a successful movie, the novelist is usually in a much better position to get their next novel published.

Can I self publish?

Self-publishing is an option for people who want to get their novel read, but the option seldom leads to substantial profits. The upside of self-publishing is that you can make much more per book than if someone else publishes your work. The downside is that all of the risks and all of the expenses are on your shoulders. That means that you have to find a way to sell enough copies of your book to make back your initial investment and then to make a profit. This is possible, but it is a lot of hard work. Keep in mind that the time you spend trying to publish and sell your novel must be subtracted from the amount of time you have available to write your next novel.

I’m sad now, can you cheer me up?

While the prospects of making a living as a novelist aren’t good, there are some people out there who manage to do it. A few people even manage to get quite wealthy. I recommend that you write novels if it is something you enjoy doing and if you want to produce something you can be proud of. Those are excellent reasons to write novels. By all means, once you produce a novel you are proud of, send it out into the world and try to find a publisher. Maybe you’ll strike it rich and maybe you won’t. At minimum you’ll have written a novel, and that is something to feel good about.

10 Ways to Make Editors Hate You Before They Even Know You

You wouldn’t think that writers would want to make editors hate them. Unfortunately, judging by terrible submissions writers keep sending in, that must be the goal. Always one to give guidance, even when it is bad guidance, I offer this short guide to making editors hate you.

Don’t get to the point. Editors are very busy. When they read a query letter or a submission cover, what they really want to know is what you are proposing and how it fits their needs. The longer you can keep yourself from telling them that, the better your chances of getting an editor to hate you.

Don’t use enough postage. Guess what? No one is going to pay the mailman just to see your submission. If you really want to aggravate an editor, send your submissions via certified mail and make them sign for it.

Get the editor’s name wrong. There’s no quicker way to get on an editor’s bad side than to misspell their name. This is a great way to get your query letter thrown away before it even gets opened. While you’re at it, get their title wrong too. That should ensure a quick trip to the garbage can.

Ignore the editor’s needs. Send the editor of an arts journal an article about ways to avoid a hangover. Send your proposal for a microwave recipe book to a publisher specializing in historical fiction. It may not quite make the editor hate you, but it will certainly be good for a laugh.

Insult other people’s work. The book you’re proposing? It’s way better than any other book in the genre and the editor should know that. Take the time to insult the competition. If you get lucky, you may just insult something the editor has worked on in the past. That should really tick them off.

Send the editor a letter that stinks. Chances are, your proposal will stink anyway. What I mean is send them one that smells bad. Smoke while you write it, or scent it with perfume. While you’re at it, use an obnoxious paper color like pink or orange. Make your query as unpleasant to smell as it is to read.

Talk money. Make it clear in the first few sentences that you expect a certain amount of money for your efforts and you will accept nothing less. Whether your demands are in the editor’s range or not doesn’t matter. Your demands will make them hate you either way.

Tell the editor how much your friends and family love your work. If you’re really out to convince the editor that you know next to nothing about the publishing industry, including the opinions of people the editor doesn’t know and has no reason to respect ought to do it.

Try to sound cocky and sarcastic. You know you’ve got the goods, why should you try to be polite and businesslike? This should make it clear to the editor just how big of a hassle it will be to work with you. Note: Feel free to use this article as a guide.

Use a cheap printer, or better yet, a typewriter. Nothing screams “not worth the effort to read” more than poorly printed, smudged text.

How to Calculate Potential Book Profits

Most writers have no idea how much money they can expect when their book is published. The formula, however, is fairly straightforward. To begin with, a writer generally receives an advance. An advance is payment, in advance, based on the expected initial earnings of the book. It is a negotiable amount, but once the publisher pays this to the writer, the advance belongs to the writer whether or not the book ever sells a copy. Advances range from a few thousand dollars to over a million dollars for well-known celebrity writers. If you are an unknown writer, your advance should range from nothing to about twenty-thousand dollars in the United States. Some first time-writers negotiate more, but that is the usual range.

In order to make the writer more money than the advance, a book has to sell well. If it does, your payment as the author comes from royalties, which you can calculate using the system below. A book that sells moderately well, but is not a bestseller, may or may not make the author a few extra thousand dollars. Royalties (ranging from 4% to 8% in most cases) are generally based on the cover price of the book, but that does not include books that are discounted or remaindered. So, for the sake of argument, say you sold 20,000 full-price copies of a paperback priced at $7 (I know it would more likely be $6.95 but I am going to use round numbers.) If your royalty percentage were a generous 8% you would make a total of $11,200.

Now remember that your advance is an advance on these royalties, so your publisher would subtract the initial advance from the $11,200. If your initial advance equaled $10,000 you would eventually receive $1,200 in additional royalties. An author who makes a total of $50,000 or more from a fiction book should consider himself or herself to be doing very well. For the sake of argument, however, let us say that Oprah Winfrey chooses your book for her book club and you sell 500,000 copies of your book. With this same formula, at 8% you would make $280,000 and would have no trouble finding a publisher and getting a big advance for your next book.

Surprisingly, the publisher does not make most of the money from your book. The party that makes the most money off the sale of a book is the retailer. By the time a publisher pays all of the related expenses of publishing a book (production, distribution, salaries, promotion, etc.), they generally clear a profit of about a dollar a book for a book with sales of about 20,000. Therefore, the publisher made more than you, but not that much more and they took on all the risk. Remember, if the book never sells a copy, you still get to keep your advance.

For this reason, the market for mid-range books (under 100,000 copy sellers) is very tough, and major publishers are looking for books they expect to sell in large numbers. This is why it is hard to get a fiction book published in today’s market. A first-time author or even an author with modest previous sales is going to have a hard time finding a publisher. When they do, they can expect very little by way of promotion because the publisher expects so little return for their investment.

If you do get your book published, and you want it to sell well, be prepared to spend a great deal of your own time marketing the book. Most authors think it should be up to the publisher to promote the sale of the book, but the author is the one who really needs to be out there making phone calls to bookstores, lining up press interviews and setting up readings and signings.

Groups and Association for Writers

This list is updated as of November 22, 2009. I have added more international listings and updated the addresses. There are hundreds of groups and associations out there. I know I have only scratched the surface, but this should get you started.

United States Writing Groups and Associations

Academy Of American Poets
584 Broadway, Suite 1208
New York, NY 10012-3250
Phone: 212-274-0343
FAX: 212-274-9427
Email: academy@poets.org
www.poets.org

Academy Of Television Arts And Sciences
5220 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91601-3109
Phone: 818-754-2800
Fax: 818-761-2827
cdn.emmys.tv/membership/index.php

Advertising Club Of New York
235 Park Avenue South 6th Floor
New York, NY 10003-1450
Phone 212-533-8080
Fax 212-533-1929
www.theadvertisingclub.org/membership

Advertising Women Of New York
25 W. 45th Street, Suite 403
New York, NY 10036
Phone: 212-221-7969
Fax: 212-221-8296
www.awny.org/HowToJoin.html

American Advertising Federation (AAF)
1101 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 800-999-2231
Fax: 202-898-0159
Email: aaf@aaf.org
www.aaf.org

American Association Of Sunday And Feature Editors
1117 Journalism Bldg
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742-7111
Phone: 301-314-2631
www.aasfe.org

American Book Producers Association
611 Broadway, Suite 611
New York, NY 10012
Phone: 212-645-2368
Fax: 212-802-2893
Email: office@ABPAonline.org
www.abpaonline.org/

American Federation Of Television And Radio Artists (AFTRA)
5757 Wilshire Boulevard, 9th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90036-3600
Tel: 323-634-8100
Fax: 323-634-8194
www.aftra.org

American Historical Association
400 A Street, S.E.,
Washington, DC 20003-3889
Phone: 202-544-2422
Fax: 202-544-8307
Email: info@historians.org
www.historians.org/

American News Women’s Club
1607 22nd Street, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Phone: 202-332-6770
Fax: 202-265-6092
Email: anwclub@comcast.net
www.anwc.org

American Society For Information Science
1320 Fenwick Lane, Suite 510
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
Phone: 301-495-0900
Fax: 301-495-0810
Email: asis@asis.org
www.asis.org

American Society Of Business Press Editors
214 North Hale St.
Wheaton, IL 60187
Phone: 630-510-4588
Fax: 630-510-4501
Email: info@asbpe.org
www.asbpe.org

American Society Of Composers, Authors And Publishers
1 Lincoln Plaza
New York, NY 10023
212-997-0947
www.ascap.com

American Society for Indexing
10200 West 44th Avenue, Suite 304
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033
Phone: 303-463-2887
Fax: 303-422-8894
asindexing.org

American Society Of Journalists And Authors
1501 Broadway, Suite 302
New York, NY 10036
212-997-0947
www.asja.org

American Society Of Magazine Editors
810 Seventh Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-872-3700
Fax: 212-906-0128
Email: asme@magazine.org
www.magazine.org

American Society Of Newspaper Editors (ASNE)
11690B Sunrise Valley Dr.
Reston, VA 20191
Phone: 703-453-1122
www.asne.org

American Theatre Critics Association
P.O. Box 26945
Phoenix, AZ 85068
602-956-2310
Email: atca_admin@msn.com
www.americantheatrecritics.org

American Women In Radio And Television (AWRT)
1760 Old Meadow Road, Suite 500
McLean, VA 22102
www.awrt.org

Association of Canadian Publishers (ACP)
174 Spadina Ave, Suite 306
Toronto Ontario M5T 2C2
Phone: 416-487-6116
Fax: 416-487-8815
Email: admin@canbook.org
www.publishers.ca

The Association of Writers and Writing Programs
George Mason University
MS 1E3
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
www.awpwriter.org

Association For Business Communication
PO Box 6143
Nacogdoches, Texas 75962-0001
Telephone: 936-468-6280
Fax: 936-468-6281
www.businesscommunication.org

Association Of American Advertising Agencies (AAAA)
666 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10017
www.aaaa.org

Association of American Publishers, Inc.
50 F Street, NW
4th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-347-3375
Fax: 202-347-3690
www.publishers.org

Association Of Authors’ Representatives (AAR)
10 Astor Place, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10003
www.aaronline.org

The Authors Guild
31 East 32nd Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Phone: (212) 563-5904
Fax: (212) 564-5363
E-mail: staff@authorsguild.org
www.authorsguild.org

California Writers’ Club
PO Box 1281
Berkeley, CA 9470
www.calwriters.org

Children’s Book Council
12 West 37th Street, Floor 2
New York, NY 10018
Phone: 212.966.1990
Fax: 212.966.2073
Email: cbc.info@cbcbooks.org
www.cbcbooks.org

Direct Marketing Association
6 E. 3rd Street
New York, NY 10017 USA
212-689-4977
www.the-dma.org

Horror Writers Association
244 5th Ave., Suite 2767
New York, NY 10001
www.horror.org

The International Association of Business Communicators
601 Montgomery Street, Suite 1900
San Francisco, CA 94111 USA
Phone: 415-544-4700

International Women’s Writing Guild
P.O. Box 810, Gracie Station
New York, NY 10028-0082
Tel: (212)737-7536
Fax: (212)737-9469
Email: dirhahn@iwwg.org
www.iwwg.com

Mystery Writers of America
1140 Broadway, Suite 1507
New York NY 10001
Phone: 212-888-8171
Fax: 212-888-8107
Email: mwa@mysterywriters.org
http://www.mysterywriters.org/

The National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE)
P.O. Box 549
Ashland, Virginia 23005
Phone: 804-767-5961
Email: janice@naiwe.com
www.naiwe.com

National Association of Women Writers
24165 IH-10 West, Ste. 217 – 637
San Antonio , TX 78257
866-821-5829 (toll free)
naww.org/blog/

National Writers Union (NWU)
256 West 38th Street, Suite 703
New York, NY 10018
212-254-0279
nwu.org

PEN American Center
588 Broadway, Suite 303
New York, NY 10012
E-mail: pen@pen.org
Telephone: 212-334-1660
Fax: 212-334-2181
www.pen.org

Poets and Writers
90 Broad Street, Suite 2100
New York, NY 10004
Phone: 212-226-3586
Fax: 212-226-3963
www.pw.org

Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
33 Maiden Lane, 11th Fl.
New York, NY 10038-5150
212-826-1250
www.prsa.org

Romance Writers of America
14615 Benfer Road
Houston, TX 77069
Phone: 832-717-5200
Fax: 832-717-5201
Email: info@rwanational.org
www.rwanational.org

Science Fiction Writers of America
P.O. Box 4236
West Columbia, SC 29171
803-791-5942
www.sfwa.org

Society of American Travel Writers
7044 South 13 Street
Oak Creek, WI 53154 USA
Phone: 414-908-4949
Fax: 414-768-8001
www.satw.org

Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators
8271 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Phone: 323-782-1010
Fax: 323-782-1892
www.scbwi.org

Women Who Write (New Jersey based)
PO Box 652
Madison NJ 07940
womenwhowrite.org

Writers Guild Of America – East
555 W 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-767-7800
Email: info@wgaeast.org
www.wgaeast.org

Writers Guild Of America – West
7000 West Third Street
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(213) 951-4000
www.wga.org

Canadian Writing Groups and Associations

Canadian Authors Association (CAA)
PO Box 581, Stn. Main
Orillia ON L3V 6K5
Phone: (705) 653-0323
Toll-free: (866) 216-6222
canauthors.org

Canadian Poetry Association
331 Elmwood Dr.,
Suite 4-212
Moncton, NB, Canada
E1A1X6
Phone: 506-380-1222
Email: poemata@live.com
cpa.yolasite.com

Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers (CANSCAIP)
104-40 Orchard View Blvd.
Lower Level Entrance
Toronto, ON
CANADA
M4R 1B9
Phone: 416-515-1559
Email: office@canscaip.org
www.canscaip.org

Editors’ Association of Canada
Association canadienne des pigistes de l’edition
(FEAC/ACP)
505–27 Carlton Street
Toronto ON M5B 1L2
416 975-1379
1 866 226-3348
communications@editors.ca
www.editors.ca

The Federation of British Columbia Writers
PO Box 3887
Stn Terminal
Vancouver, BC Canada V6B 3Z3
Phone: 604-683-2057
Email: bcwriters@shaw.ca
www.bcwriters.com

League of Canadian Poets (LCP)
312 – 192 Spadina Avenue
Toronto, ON
M5T 2C2
Phone: 416-504-1657
Fax: 416-504-0096
www.poets.ca

Periodical Writers Association of Canada (PWAC)
215 Spadina Avenue, Suite #123
Toronto ON M5T 2C7
Phone: (416) 504-1645
Email: info@pwac.ca
www.pwac.ca

Playwrights Guild of Canada
215 Spadina Ave.
Suite #210
Toronto, Ontario
Canada, M5T 2C7
Phone: 416.703.0201
Fax: 416.703.0059
Email: info@playwrightsguild.ca
www.playwrightsguild.ca

Saskatchewan Writers Guild
Box 3986
Regina, SK S4P 3R9
Phone: (306) 757-6310
Fax: (306) 565-8554
swg@sk.sympatico.ca
www.skwriter.com

Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia
WFNS
1113 Marginal Road
Halifax, NS B3H 4P7
Phone: 902-423-8116
Email: talk@writers.ns.ca
www.writers.ns.ca

The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC)
90 Richmond Street East, Suite 200
Toronto, ON, M5C 1P1
www.writersunion.ca

Australian Writing Groups and Associations

Australian Writers Guild
5 Blackfriars Street Chippendale NSW 2008
Phone: 02 9319 0339
Fax: 02 9319 0141
Email: admin@awg.com.au
www.awg.com.au

Australian Society of Authors
PO Box 1566
Strawberry Hills NSW 2012
Phone: +61 2 9318 0877
Fax: +61 2 9318 0530
Email: asa@asauthors.org
www.asauthors.org

Fellowship of Australian Writers
PO Box 973
Eltham. Vic. 3095
Phone: 0413 736 723
Email: secretary@writers.asn.au

Fellowship of Australian Writers – Western Australia
PO Box 6180
Swanbourne, WA 6910
Phone: +61 8 9384 4771
Email: admin@fawwa.org.au

South Australian Writers’ Centre
PO Box 43
Rundle Mall
Adelaide SA 5000
Phone: 08 8223 7662
Fax: 08 8232 3994
Email: sawriters@sawc.org.au
www.sawc.org.au

New Zealand Writing Groups and Associations

New Zealand Writers Guild
PO Box 47 886
Ponsonby
Auckland 1144
Phone: +64 9 360 1408
Fax: +64 9 360 1409
Email: info@nzwg.org.nz
www.nzwritersguild.org.nz

New Zealand Society of Authors
PO Box 7701
Wellesley Street
Auckland 1141
Phone/Fax: +64 9 379 4801
www.authors.org.nz

British Writing Groups and Associations

Writers’ Guild of Great Britain
40 Rosebery Avenue
London
EC1R 4RX
Tel: 020 7833 0777
Fax: 020 7833 4777
Email: erik@writersguild.org.uk
www.writersguild.org.uk

Crime Writers’ Association
Phone: 07780 693 144.
Email: info@thecwa.co.uk
www.thecwa.co.uk

The Society of Authors
84 Drayton Gardens
London
SW10 9SB
Tel: 020 7373 6642
Fax: 020 7373 5768
www.societyofauthors.org

International Writing Groups and Associations

International Affiliation of Writers Guilds
Email: postmaster@iawg.org
www.iawg.org

How to Write Quality Query Letters: Write a Great Headline

The first line of your query letter is the most important line you’ll write. If you capture the reader’s interest with the first line, your chances of selling your article will improve dramatically. Every writer should take at least a little time to study copywriting and sales letters, because a query letter is essentially a sales letter. You are attempting to sell an article by writing a custom sales letter to a single potential publisher.

The best way to start off a query letter is to treat the first line like it was the headline for your article. Center it above the rest of the text and make it as provocative as possible. Try to match the style of your target publication when you write the headline. Cosmopolitan and Woman’s Day are both publications aimed at women, but their style and content are different. In most cases, you would want to write a different headline for your query letter if you were pitching it to one magazine rather than the other.

Beyond being provocative, the headline should give the editor some idea of the format and style of your article. For example, “Ten Ways to Smash Christmas Debt” would clearly be a list article while, “Do You Blow Your Christmas Budget?” could be a list but sounds more like a quiz or a series of questions and answers. Here are some provocative headlines from recent articles on the web. Note that the style of headline matches the style of the publication. Also remember that I am discussing the headlines, not the content of the articles.

• Beat the Holiday or Financial Blues: 9 Tips for Making Yourself Happier in the Next 30 Minutes — Zen Habits
• How to Deal with Cranks, Flamers and Trolls — Men with Pens
• I Got Off My Ass and Did It –  Someday Syndrome
• What Freelancers Can Learn From The Dog Whisperer — Beyond the Rhetoric
• The 10 Free Resources Every Writer Needs — Write to Done
• When witnesses take over the news — BuzzMachine
• Doctors Observe First Known Case of Sleep E-Mailing — Techcult
• What Do Prostitutes and Rice Have in Common? — Freakonomics
• Social Media Bought My Car — Remarkablogger

After your headline, consider writing a subhead that provides additional information and clarity. A headline that is meant to attract attention is not always as informative as it is provocative. The subhead gives you a chance to explain the content of your proposed article. You want to capture the editor’s attention, and then you want to give them the essential flavor of your article before you move on to the meat of your query.

Is Demand Studios the new Associated Press?

I recently wrote an opinion piece defending Demand Studios after another blogger chose to label them as a scam based on the fact that their pay is somewhat low and they make frequent requests for rewrites of articles. I still side with Demand Studios on that issue, but I do want to point out a better (though not perfect) article about Demand Studios at ReadWriteWeb. This article doesn’t try to portray the writers as victims but rather tries to analyze the effect of such a large content mill on the Internet as a whole. The basic premise is that Demand Studios has a content creation system in place (using both automation and live reviewers) that results in an assembly-line style article that RWW compares to Henry Ford’s original automobile production line. The article takes issue with the quality of the content being produced, and that is a more legitimate criticism than the exploitation of writers.

4000 Articles a Day

According to the RWW piece, Demand Studios produces approximately 4000 articles a day through its combination of freelancers and editors. The one issue that I have with the article is that they use this as an indictment of the quality. They ask:

The bigger question is: there are surely many examples of good Demand Media content on the Web, but how many of the 4,000 articles it produces every day aren’t?

To me this is a poor argument. Yes, I’m sure that some of the 4000 articles aren’t great, but no one can judge what the percentage of this is so it is a specious question. I mainly read blogs by single authors. Mass produced blogs leave me a little cold. As a follower of individuals I can tell you that even the best bloggers put out lousy articles on occasion. Lord knows I do. No one is brilliant every day.

The better point the article makes is that the Demand Studios assembly line style and fast turnaround time creates a certain sameness to the articles being written, that there is a Demand Studios style, and it isn’t very interesting or incisive. I don’t read enough of their types of articles (like I said, I follow individual bloggers) to know if this is true, but it seems like a legitimate possibility.

In the Eighties the Definition of a Content Mill was “Associated Press”

Way back in the eighties, I served as the Associated Press Wire Editor for my college newspaper. Having an AP feed back then was as close as you could get to having Google News now. Article after article printed out on the dot matrix printer they provided, and I looked at them all (while dressed in my linen Miami Vice jacket) to see if they were relevant. I can tell you that AP’s style (they do have their own stylebook after all) was pretty bland even then. For most articles, you got the facts, and nothing but the facts. There was little room for color or individuality. A single article might get published in 500 different newspapers all over the world. Any sort of colorful writing had to be killed in case someone out there didn’t get it, or worse, was offended by it. Another interesting similarity between the Associated Press and Demand Studios is that AP has always used a number of low-paid writers (they call them stringers) to freelance for them. In the eighties, the saying was, “You can’t spell stupid without UPI and you can’t spell cheap without AP.”

Obviously Demand Studios is not identical to AP. The journalistic standards and the general level of talent at AP are considerably higher than at Demand Studios. AP is more selective about who they hire and more stringent about the sources for their articles. It is the similarities though, not the differences, that catch my eye. Both organizations tap a worldwide pool of writers. Both organizations exist to provide content to other organizations. Both organizations rely heavily on freelance work. Most importantly, both organizations have writing philosophies based on a universal cookie-cutter style.

I believe that sort of generic writing was the beginning of the end for newspapers, and I think that it can only have limited success on the Internet. A certain number of people will be satisfied with these articles, and search engines may never be able to tell good articles from bad articles, but there will always be plenty of room for individuals with distinctive voices to keep writing. A loyal audience that comes back again and again is in most cases preferable to a large number of casual readers who never return.

Demand Studios is a company that is filling a content niche quite successfully. The fact that they have enough writers and customers to be publishing 4000 articles a day shows that they are filling a need that exists on both sides. That said, if someone else comes up with a better way to do it, then the market will change again. I think Demand Studios does a lot of things well, but I also think there is plenty of room for improvement. If they can make a profit doing things their way, then surely someone who improves on the concept can do even better.

For Further Information:

• Is Demand Studios Worth Your Time?
• The Answer Factory: Demand Media and the Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell Media Model
• About Hub Pages: An Interview with Ryan “Hup” Hupfer
• FakeAPStylebook on Twitter

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