I have a general policy to not in any way ever try to calculate, add up, estimate, or project how much money I’ve spent or will spend on my education. Right now, I’m learning all I can about Internet marketing, and it isn’t cheap. I previously wanted to learn about writing, and that wasnt cheap. It’s not cheap to learn about medicine or cooking or how to speak a foreign language.
Education is pretty expensive, but it’s cheaper than the price of ignorance.
A lot of writers hate to pay money for training, courses, classes, books, how-to things, conferences, and other items. But the fact is in writing, like most other markets, the best information (or at least the most conveniently packaged and carefully designed) is going to cost money.
I think writers who try to learn everything they need to be profitable freelancers without spending a nickel on training or education are setting themselves up for a pretty formidable challenge. I think it’s possible–you can probably find out what you need to know from free sources and talking to writers who’ll talk to you, but you’re going to get a hodge-podge of information that can take years to gather and more years to really sort out and organize.
Which brings me to doctors. By the time a person has gotten an M.D. in the United States and enters Fellowship (a period of training leading to specialization, for instance, as a cardiologist or an oncologist), that person has spend hundreds of thousands on education–college, university, courses, books, lab fees, and so on. Not to mention the fact that a person in medical school cannot work full-time or work in any meaningful way. Thus, a person in medical school is earning next to nothing and paying top dollar to get an education.
In Fellowship, a doctor will earn a salary, but it is not much. I’m not sure many people are aware of how low pay for a Fellow really is. I bet there are nurses that earn more than a Fellow, and Fellows are often expected to put in grueling hours, be near-constantly on call, and generally be treated with disdain by all of the “real” doctors around them.
So now the doctor has stopped spending money, but he or she is forced to put in a year — or two or three — working very hard for a very modest salary.
Lots of folks don’t have much sympathy for these new doctors because if they do well … after medical school, exams, fellowship, and board exams … they are poised to earn an outstanding living for the rest of their life. Doctors not only have good earning potential, they are more or less guaranteed to be able to work for the rest of their lives. Doctors also enjoy considerable social prestige and make a real contribution to society. So most people figure, “Hey, they’re going to do well for the majority of the years they work, so it’s no big deal that they have to pay so much for their education or put in some tough months or years in training.”
But why do writers feel differently? Writers often hesitate to invest in education and I’ve met writers who don’t want to get by-lines or write unless they’re getting paid well. But what if you thought of your writing career the way a physician thinks of his or her career?
- It costs to get training, whether it’s online, conferences, books, classes, or whatever.
- You sometimes have to work for no money or nominal money to get experience.
- Sometimes it’s worth it to work for nothing or nominal pay to get training or other perks.
- Nobody who has to learn a great deal of information to practice a profession can get there without having to spend some money.
I say all this because I’m listening to an Internet guru right now. It’s one of those courses about online marketing. It’s a great course, actually, absolutely excellent, but it wasn’t free. I’m not sure many writers would invest in themselves this way, but it’s important to be a lifelong learner to be the kind of writer who thrives in a changing (and often challenging) economy.
