A few years back I was invited to join a group website. I’ll leave out the name because it’s not important. I created an account, a very basic one, and ignored it. The only reason I did it in the first place was people I knew asked me to be in the group. I felt guilty, like I needed to help them out, so I joined.

Every once in awhile, I’d get a request and accept the invite. This past week, I got another one. I decided to investigate the site a little further and looked at my old profile. I had no idea what I wrote so I thought it would be a good idea to update. Since I write, I thought joining a few writers’ groups wouldn’t be a bad thing either.

Well, little did I know, I would start getting emails from every group within the hour. I know I can elect to not have them sent, but I was curious. I might learn something new, discover fresh ideas and make some connections.

So far, this is what I learned. Someone sold a book and didn’t get paid. They wanted to know what piracy was. What? Trust me. That’s exactly what it said.

Not to get into details, but people politely posted questions to help this person out. They asked: How did this person know they sold a book? Answer: Someone told them they bought a book.

Do they have a contract? Do they get paid quarterly? Never answered.

Did they independently publish? Many helpful facts were given about how self-published authors get paid. Again, the poster never answered.

I sat back and took a deep breath. I asked myself what did you get yourself into? I thought professionals and aspiring authors would be sharing information. Hopefully better topics will be come up in the future.

Then I reread the post. Was it about the excitement of selling a book or did this person just want to get paid? They weren’t overjoyed they sold their book? That someone wanted to read it?

If you write to get a payday, then you might be in the wrong profession. Maybe the top 1% can call it their passion and their career.

So if you write, write because you love it. Not that someone will buy your book and you’re waiting to get paid.

I don’t want someone to just buy my book. It would make my day if they read it.