The career novelist

Packagers and work-for-hire

Most writers-for-hire move on to their own fiction only to find them-
selves left high and dry.
Generally, publishers assume that work-for-hire will have no
impact on the sales of an author's own fiction. They may use work-
for-hire success as a selling point within the trade, but rarely do
they try to sell new work to the public on that basis.
Another faulty rationalization that authors employ to justify
accepting work-for-hire contracts is that such work will buy them
time to write their own fiction. This is rarely true. Packagers pay for
a writer's time and, believe me, they extract good value for their
money. Usually a work-for-hire advance gives an author just enough
breathing room to finish the project in question—and many work-
for-hire deals do not even provide that much air.
As a result, work-for-hire authors who accept such assignments
to fill in gaps in their income can find that at the end of the day
they are in the same fix they were in at the beginning. With no new
solo novel ready, and no new contract in sight, they are still short
the rent money. What to do? Get a job? That is unlikely, especial-
ly if another work-for-hire contract is handy. If they are not careful,
that income gap will turn into a chasm that they will never get
across.
Those who fall into the work-for-hire trap frequently allow them-
selves this consolation: at least they are getting paid quickly. While
that can be true, it is also often the case that there is a rush on for
the manuscript in question. It is common in the packaging game for
authors to finish their assignments around the same time that their
signing advance arrives.
Younger authors sometimes also rationalize that writing work-
for-hire fiction will allow them to learn on the job. This reasoning,
at least, has some basis in fact... that is, if you are dying to become
the kind of writer whose fiction appeals mainly to consumers of
comics, computer games, TV shows, and movies. It is not that pack-
aged novels are necessarily bad; it is just that they inevitably shape
writers in a certain way. It is wise to consider whether one wants to
be that type of writer before one gets too deeply into work-for-hire
writing. It can be tough to undo the writing habits learned on that
particular job.