I just read an article today regarding the changes in Amazon and how authors and publishers get paid.  Now there is no way to tell who is a third party seller or a publisher.  Whom does the check go too now?

Last night I watched Blade Runner with my husband.  I loved it.  It cost millions of dollars to make and did horribly at the box office.  It was essentially an art piece but in these fickle audience times that doesn’t neccessarily mean much.

Art is cheap.

Why do we artists think we can actually make a solid living at it?  Is it really possible?  Art is the one thing we so often give away for free.  All the time.  Books, music, photographs, artwork, everything.  It is free.  So where does that leave the artist then?

It leaves him or her starving as always.

I think I know the reason why.  Art is not supposed to be subjected to the likes of greed and money making.  It is supposed to be a respite for the masses.  A therapeutic tool.  A way to escape from the monotonous 9 to 5 of the average Joe work day.

The artist simply provides that for them.

As an artist myself that is difficult to accept but I understand it.  Art is the true socialistic enterprise, is it not?  People creating beauty for the people to enjoy.   It is the act of creating that is not only beneficial to the artist making it but the audience that enjoys it.

You throw in marketing, you throw in the possiblity of making some money at it and you are instantly labeled a “sell out.”  So then you ask, “Well how should the artist support him or herself then?”  The simple answer?  Get a day job.

I don’t like that answer one single bit.  However, as I walk through the used bookstores and buy books for a dollar who am I to judge?

Perhaps then this will be where the true artists emerge.  This is certainly not a business where you can make a quick buck. That much is clear. You can’t.  This business requires your heart  in every way possible.  It is quickly becoming a true act of charity.  It will soon separate the wheat from the chaff.  If there isn’t any money to be made then those in it for the money will leave.  Those in it for art itself will remain.