Sometimes
artists have a tough life.
At
least, people who want to make a living off of their art do.
The
most recent example of this is Cullen Bunn’s departure from Aquaman.
For
those who are not Aquafans, Arthur Curry (AKA Aquaman), has jokingly been referred
to as the least interesting superhero in DC comics. His powers always seem to
pale in comparison to the Trinity (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman), and
even the writers have maltreated him at times. He’s been bearded, had a harpoon
for a hand, and generally spent more time swimming with the fishes than walking
on land. It’s made him a difficult character for fans to relate to.
Then
Flashpoint happened and Aquaman, along with everyone else, got the reboot. Yet
for as disastrous as the New52, as it was called, may or may not have been,
fans were united in their zeal for Geoff John’s taking over the Aquaman title.
In the blink of an eye, he took a character from the outskirts and meshed him
with forgotten DC lore and mythos to create one of the best-selling and most
beloved titles.
Aquaman
was popular.
I
still can’t wrap my head around that fact.
But,
as with many good things, it didn’t last. DC, in its painfully finite wisdom,
decided to reboot the entire DC universe again after 4 short years to fix the
multitude of “problems” generated from the New52. And, like it’d done with
every reboot before Convergence, it threw the baby out with the bath water. With
the DCYou (yes, that’s what they called it), every single hero in the lineup
was headed in a “Bold New Direction”. For Aquaman, that new direction had Cullen
Bunn at the helm.
I
don’t envy Mr. Bunn. Aquaman wasn’t his creation, it was a legacy character he
inherited. He was tasked with perpetuating that legacy, but as an artist, also wanted
to leave his unique mark on the character. Those stipulations painted into a corner
from Day 1. The DC execs were pushing for Bold New Directions, so Bunn gave
them one. One that fell flat almost immediately with fans.
Bunn
lasted less than a year and is now headed onto new ventures*. His and DC's vision didn’t work for the masses and both paid the price. Geoff Johns
returned to Aquaman and DC was forced to return to writers and plot lines from
the New52 story arcs.
Cullen
Bunn may be a high-profile case, and in a slightly different predicament than
the average artist, but at his core, he’s no different than you or me. All of
us, writers, artists, dreamers, we’re all simply trying to make it in this
world. We have creative ideas that we want the mass market to love and buy. We
want our craft to sell. But where is the line between the purity of our art and
the appeal to a mass market?
And
that, ladies and gentlemen, is the Grand Dilemma. Therein resides the eternal struggle
between Art and Money.
That’s
not to say you can’t have your cake and stuff it with cash too, but the reality
is that we authors have a story we want to tell. We pour their heart and soul
into our flash, short, novella, novel, etc., then polish it till it shines.
Finally, we take it to agents and publishers, hoping that both will love it as
much as we do. Even if they do, we still have to convince readers to feel the
same. For every Harry Potter or Hunger Games, there are tens of thousands of
excellent books that simply don’t sell. And behind each one is a writer trying
to figure out what separates them from the Big Leagues.
The
short answer is, no one really knows. Some artists make it big out of the
starting gates. Others take time to be discovered, if ever.
At
the heart of the war between Art and Money is the driving factor for our need
to write. Are we in it for the purity of the art? For the royalty checks? For
the readership? For fun?
It’s
a personal question and one that each and every author eventually faces. What
gives us a leg up over the Cullen Bunns of this world is that, for most of us,
our creations are unique. We are the genesis of literary worlds rather than
perpetuating the legacy of someone else’s creation. That gives us a lot more
room to determine what we consider successful.
Sometimes that's a point in-between the two extremes.
When
I first pitched Undead Chaos to
agents, the general response was “Zombies are dead”**. Rejections rolled in by
the dozens, but I liked my story. Didn’t want to change it. Against all odds,
it eventually found a home. Would it have sold sooner or better if I’d chased
the market? Perhaps, but even if I had tweaked it to match what was hot at the
time, there was no guarantee it would have had greater appeal. Just because
Zombie-Erotica-Historical-Western-Self-Help-Memoirs are selling like crazy
today doesn’t mean they will be a year from now. Or even a month from now.
And
yet, if we don’t watch the market, don’t worry about trends, we may find ourselves
writing stories for ourselves and no one else. Yes, our art is important to us,
but the chances of us selling that Horror-Comedy-YA-Cookbook sitting in our
drawer may be slim, no matter what.
So
what’s a writer to do?
I
wish I had answer, but I don’t. The market does what it does and we writers
either chase it, hoping for sales, or buck it, accepting the risk that our
story may not see the light of day. Sometimes we hit it big on both counts. Other
times, we’re left shaking our fist at the wind.
That
said, let me offer some personal advice:
1) Figure out your
motivation, whether it be sticking to your vision, pleasing the public, or
something in between. Note that all three are viable goals, but being honest
with yourself about what you want can help avoid some frustration along the
way. If you’re about big book sales, maybe a closer study of the market and
what’s working is called for. If you’re more concerned about protecting your
vision, then industry expectations be damned. And if you’re somewhere in
between, well then, figure out where that fits in your grand plan.
2) Go big and love every
minute. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing, painting, or being the show-runner
for Aquaman. If you’re truly passionate about what you’re doing and if you’re
in it for the right reasons (whatever those might be), then success will come.
Maybe it won’t be in the form of sales, but it will be something measurable The
very first book I ever wrote still sits in a drawer, collecting dust. It’s
terrible, long, and too raw for me to consider editing. It will never find its
way to print, but that’s okay. I thumb through it from time to time because it’s
a measurement of success. Not by money or purity of art, but by internal pride.
After all, I’d never completed a manuscript before.
In
the end, writing, like all forms of art, is defined by what drives you. For some,
it’s winning awards and seeing their name on the Best Seller list. For others,
it’s keeping their work pure, no matter what the masses think. Yet somewhere in
between is a happy middle-ground where many of us can thrive. Where for us,
success is defined by something more than a check or an unedited beauty.
But
no matter where you wind up on the spectrum, just remember that while we might
not all have the same goals, but we can find happiness in reaching for them.
The
first step is simply to figure out what those are, then go from there.
*For
more on The Bunn Run with Aquaman, I highly recommend checking out my Dragon
Brother’s blog, The Absorbascon.
**I
kid you not, that was one of the responses. I still hold that agent in VERY
high regard for such an epically punny rejection.
Bio:
Joshua Roots is a car collector, beekeeper, and storyteller. He enjoys singing with his a cappella chorus, golf, and all facets of Sci-Fi/Fantasy. He's still waiting for his acceptance letter to Hogwarts and Rogue Squadron. He and his wife will talk your ear off about their bees if you let them.
Paranormal Chaos, the final book in The Shifter Chronicles, is available for pre-order wherever digital books are sold.
