Author Karen Lord, 2008 and 2009 1st Prize Frank Collymore Literary Endowment (FCLE) winner, addressing the recently held 19th Annual FCLE Awards ceremony.
Pay us!
This is the call of local, award- winning author Karen Lord to all who use a writer’s words for an event or a project.
“Even a small, symbolic compensation matters. This is work,” she stressed during the 19th Annual Frank Collymore Literary Endowment (FCLE) Awards Ceremony.
Speaking on the topic “Hobby, Profession, Industry on Being and Becoming a Writer”, she took the opportunity to urge Barbadians to “stop expecting writers to do things for free”.
“This is our time, our skill, our blood, sweat and tears. It’s not only the principle of the thing; the more you support a writer, the more resources they will have to build a career in which they can grow and improve and create better and better work,” she stressed.
“Yes, there will be occasions for freely volunteering time and work for a good cause, but there again, if writers are properly compensated, they will be able to do more volunteer work in the areas where it is genuinely needed. And you will find better quality if you do not restrict yourself to writers who are affluent enough to subsist on unpaid exposure.”
Lord, the 2008 and 2009 FCLE winner, said she always encouraged readers to read what they like without apology. However, she admitted “sometimes you have to go a little deeper and discover value in work that is not exactly to your personal taste.
“Support our work. Read and recommend as widely as possible. Don’t wait for a foreigner to educate you on your own literature. We can’t like everything, we can’t even read everything, but we must acknowledge the excellence that we already have in our midst.”
Lord also observed that publishing is a process, and a completed draft is only the start. She explained that writers need lawyers to help with contracts, accountants to help with taxes, brand managers to advise on promotion, agents to seek out opportunities.
“Most writers cannot afford these services on an individual basis, but there are non-governmental, governmental and community organisations that assist writers where you can contribute according to your specialisation. Or take the model used by professional agents and work on commission,” she pointed out.
“Entrepreneurship, sales and promotion require time and talent. Writing requires time and talent. Do not expect writers to manage every aspect of producing and promoting their books. Do not imagine that only writers are essential to the industry. Everyone wants to be the next Stephen King, but does anyone want to be the next Stephen King’s accountant? Or the accountant for a group of writers who, considered together, have an output and income equivalent to a Stephen King? Think about it”.
The author further expressed that literature can only survive and thrive if the country develops its own industry – not only of authors, publishers, booksellers, but also lawyers, accountants, agents, publicists, innovators and entrepreneurs.
“We must make it a priority to maintain a literary legacy that gives us a clear mirror of who we are, and a clear vision of who we can be,” she said.
(TL)
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