No, not that kind. You’re thinking of the second meaning of the word “amateur,” which is a person who is incompetent or inept at a particular activity. I’m referring to the first meaning of amateur; a person who engages in a pursuit for pleasure rather than for financial benefit. I want to discuss writing for the love of writing rather than for the love of money.
Charles Chu wrote a fine article in the defense of amateurs that you can read here: https://qz.com/990130/in-defense-of-amateurs/ It is well worth reading. I’ve cribbed some quotes from his article.
The first point he makes is that the word amateur comes from the Latin “amare” to love, and “amator” lover. It evolved in Italian to amatore and in the 18th century it became amateur. Its original meaning was to love something. A good thing, I think.
The writer and novelist, K G Chesterton was famous for his defense of the amateur. He wrote this in his biography of Robert Browning:
“The word amateur has come by the thousand oddities of language to convey an idea of tepidity; whereas the word itself has the meaning of passion. Nor is this peculiarity confined to the mere form of the word; the actual characteristic of these nameless dilettanti is a genuine fire and reality. A man must love a thing very much if he not only practices it without any hope of fame or money, but even practices it without any hope of doing it well. Such a man must love the toils of the work more than any other man can love the rewards of it.”
Or, as he put it more succinctly; “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”
However, you don’t have to do it badly to do it as an amateur. You just don’t let the fear of doing it badly prevent you from doing it.
Still, it is undeniable that these days the term amateur usually refers to a person who is less than adept or an object that is crudely made. The fact that it doesn’t have to mean that is neither here nor there. If you are going to practice the art of writing as an amateur you may well have to endure being looked down on by self-defined “professional writers” as a “hobbyist.” But amateur or professional is mostly a mindset in self-publishing. The amateur mindset liberates your creative potential by taking the often inhibiting question of “But will it sell?” off the table. As an amateur you’re not writing to sell. You are writing to write.
As an amateur you need not be concerned with creating a product. You need not even be concerned with an external audience. You can craft a story to your heart’s desire without making concessions to what experts say, or readers expect. You can make it as conventional or as unconventional as you wish. The choice is entirely yours. If your stories are worth writing, they are worth being written without compromises. Every story will find readers.
Another advantage of writing as an amateur is that you are free to do it as a pastime. You don’t need to feel like you must hammer out 5,000 words a day to be productive. You can write at your own pace. You don’t need to meet deadlines. If it is a passion, you will find the time. And even if it takes a little self-discipline to get started, once you start writing, your passion will carry you along. And if that passion fades, you need not turn it into a dreary job. You find a new passion.
As an amateur you don’t have to conform to all the expensive requirements that professional writers are expected to spend their money on these days. You can pick and choose what, if anything, you care to spend money on. Editors? Proofreaders? Covers? Formatters? Advertising? Your choice – some, none, or all. If you are planning to share rather than sell your book, you can sleep well at night knowing that even though there may be people who look gift horses in the mouth, you’re not obliged to please them.
As a pure amateur, the joy of creating a story is its own reward. Entertaining readers is a bonus. As an amateur you don’t write it for money, so sharing your work for free is the natural end of the process – if you even want to share your story.
Now up to this last point that I realize that many authors would say that what I’ve been describing is pretty much what they do already. However, giving away all your work for free seems a bridge too far for many. There are no doubt good reasons for this attitude. For example, “My sales are doing quite well, thank you.” And I am certain that there are others as well. Please share your reasons in the comments below, or submit an essay on the subject. In the meanwhile, I’ll just explain why I choose to share rather than try to sell my books.
I enjoy writing. No one has to pay me to do it. On the other hand, you couldn’t pay me enough to do all the self-promoting that selling books requires. Selling my books for free does that work for me.
I don’t have to play the game. I don’t have to do all the things we’re told to do, things like hire editors, cover artists, designers, and advertisers. As a result, publishing my books has been both inexpensive and stress free. Oh, I’ve had to learn how to do a lot of things – sometimes the hard way – but the whole experience of self-publishing has been very rewarding.
I’ve used the tagline, “No good deed goes unpunished” in my books. But sometimes they are rewarded. Over the years some of my readers have very kindly volunteered to help me make my books significantly better by beta and proofreading them before I publish them. Sharing invites sharing.
And finally, it works, at least for me, for my goals. In the past six and a half years I’ve given away more than 44,000 copies of my books by doing little more than writing them. Judging from my odd Amazon sales and foreign sales even at $.99, I might have sold several hundred copies, at most, in the same period. I want to be read and remembered. Being an amateur author who shares rather than sells his books, has allowed me to make a far greater mark on the world, however insignificant it is, than selling them ever will.
I can’t guarantee that adopting the mindset of an amateur author will work for you as it has for me. Every author has different books, different readers, different sales goals and different dynamics. Indeed, even after 6 plus years of giving away my books and creating a modest readership, I have found it harder to reach readers by giving away books these days. The market has matured in the last six years. These days, if you’re writing out of the mainstreams, you’re all but invisible. So maybe giving away books these days will not broaden your readership. Still, you might want to ask yourself “What do I have to lose by becoming an amateur?” Or better yet, “What do I have to gain by becoming an amateur?”
What do you think? What are your goals in writing? What are your yardsticks of success? Let’s talk.
Writers Supporting Writers 