Art or Business?

This question came up in a group recently. Is your writing an art or a business?

General consensus so far seems to be that art is satisfying to the soul, but doesn't make money. If your writing is a business, you make money but there is no soul in your words.

A lot of people seem to think that you can't be both. I disagree. I write from my heart, but I expect to make money with my words.

What do you think? Art or business?

How much can you make?

We've talked about Commercial Writing, or Copywriting, many times in the chatroom. The big draw in Copywriting is the money. It's hard to make money with fiction, and non-fiction can be tough too. Many writers are just scraping by, or have to keep their day job.

Copywriters can make a living with words. How good a living? That depends on how good you are, and how hard you market.

Writers Market has a pdf report . It gives you the high, low and average pay rates for many different copywriting jobs. Not just ad writing, but all kinds of writing jobs. Editing, rewrites, speech writing, etc.

It's very illuminating. Download the report for free here.