{"id":658,"date":"2009-01-29T00:00:22","date_gmt":"2009-01-29T05:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/mojo\/?p=658"},"modified":"2025-07-31T16:55:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T21:55:42","slug":"how-valuable-is-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/blog\/how-valuable-is-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"How valuable is knowledge?"},"content":{"rendered":"

NOTE: This is the third in a series of several posts David Nygren of The Urban Elitist<\/a> and I will be cross-blogging concerning the issue of authors (whether traditionally published, e-published, or self-published) actually getting paid for their work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Outside of David\u2019s and my continuing exploration of how to monetize our work (and for me, this means fiction), I\u2019ve come across some interesting things that really only cement my opinion that, in a misguided attempt to be generous, knowledge is flung around like rotting leaves on a late fall day: plentiful, soggy, and seemingly worthless.<\/p>\n

In ages past, knowledge was specialized and carefully husbanded, passed down from father to son or from master to apprentice, under the craft guild\u2019s auspices: tailoring, goldsmithing, masonry, jewel cutting. These trades were respected, well paid, and each had their\u2014get it?\u2014guild to watch out for the trade. (I won\u2019t go into the differences between a guild and a union at this time.)<\/p>\n

\"ThisNot that long ago, esoteric specialized trades with their own secrets began to write how-to books. I still liken this to the groundbreaking This Old House<\/em><\/a> (and if you don\u2019t know how groundbreaking this was in the building and remodeling industry, you just weren\u2019t paying attention or you weren\u2019t born yet). In 1979, I was 11 and I ate it up, glued to PBS every Saturday morning. (There\u2019s a genome for DIYers, you see.) Still, the how-to books got bought and people learned these things\u2014and they paid for the privilege.<\/p>\n

A couple of years ago, I thought I\u2019d undertake the task of making drapes, so I bought (oooh, there\u2019s that word again) an e-book on the subject. It was self-published, an A-to-Z how-to with simple instructions laid out for an idiot ADDer like me, and far superior to anything I\u2019d seen in a bookstore or at the library. It was $24.95 and worth every penny. (Never did get around to doing the drapes, but now I understand the concepts and principles of drape-making.)<\/p>\n

Today, I went looking for how to create dollhouse plans and build a dollhouse. Now, I have never been into dollhouses and this project has to do with my current WIP, Stay<\/em><\/a>, for which I want to build Whittaker House (a gothic revival mansion inn) and its surrounds in miniature. And I found this: FREE dollhouse plans and instructions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I would\u2019ve paid money for instructions like that, perhaps as an e-book or as a serial or a do-along project. I mean, she seems to know what she\u2019s talking about, right? I wondered, \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with that woman?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MemeBut then I looked at the header of my own blog, where it says, CREATING E-BOOK SERIES<\/span>. I\u2019ve been spending hours and hours building the next post on this (in case anybody was wondering where the hell it was). What\u2019s wrong with that woman in the mirror?<\/p>\n

Three things:<\/p>\n

\n
    \n
  1. I\u2019m a dilettante. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m doing this the \u201cright\u201d way. I can only share what I\u2019ve done; thus, I\u2019m not sure my knowledge is actually worth anything.<\/li>\n
  2. I like to teach, and any bit of knowledge will spur me on.<\/li>\n
  3. I\u2019m a compulsive helper. Knowledge is power and I think there are a lot of people out there who could use some empowerment.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    If I had a penis and had gone to a master to teach me, say, stone cutting, my father would have paid the master to take me on as an apprentice. I would have served in his household in whatever capacity in exchange for room and board and knowledge for a period of 7 years (or more), which would have made me little better than an indentured servant. And then I would have struck out on my next phase as a journeyman and continued training. Once I earned the title of master under stringent training and specification, I could then say, \u201cThese are my credentials because I gave 14 years of my life to my trade in money, blood, sweat, and tears, and I am now in a position to charge money for my expertise and get my own little slave.\u201d<\/p>\n

    If I had gone to college and enrolled in their fashion program, I would have paid tuition and gained credentials that told people, \u201cYeah, I kind of know what I\u2019m talking about, so you need to pay me for my knowledge.\u201d Oh, wait. I did do that. And I have a couple of awards to show for that. In my particular field of textiles, I\u2019m considered a bit of an expert. So I charge.<\/p>\n

    But I didn\u2019t go anywhere to learn how to create e-books. I learned my CSS and (X)HTML on my own from the free sites online (which sites exist in order to promote a standard markup). I learned the software programs by hit-or-miss. Nobody taught me; I didn\u2019t ask anybody to teach me. I don\u2019t feel I know enough to charge.<\/p>\n

    So why am I doing it?<\/p>\n

    To get traffic here into my blog to get you to buy my book. I am an expert on the subject of The Proviso<\/em>, so I want to get paid for it. I am fortunate in that a couple of people have mostly agreed with me on my level of expertise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Rightly or wrongly, some knowledge has to be given away to entice you to buy my product. Sometimes, those enticements don\u2019t seem related. Obviously, there are some problems with the method I\u2019ve chosen, which is to say, the people most likely to show up here to take the knowledge I\u2019m offering free are probably writing books of their own and I should view them as my competition. They probably view me as their competition, too.<\/p>\n

    But say I\u2019m wrong and it\u2019s painfully obvious to everyone (except me and the people who take my advice) that I have no clue what I\u2019m doing. Well, then my competition will screw up, too.<\/p>\n

    Sometimes free isn\u2019t worth what you paid for it and can actually cost you a whole lot of real time and cash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    NOTE: This is the third in a series of several posts David Nygren of The Urban Elitist and I will be cross-blogging concerning the issue of authors (whether traditionally published, e-published, or self-published) actually getting paid for their work. Outside of David\u2019s and my continuing exploration of how to monetize our work (and for me, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[529,476,526,81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-production","category-musings","category-reviews-mojo","category-the-proviso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17004,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions\/17004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}