Tip Jar Ethics

What Stephen King's Quote on Money Got Right

“If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn’t bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.”

― Stephen King

This quote is giving out a definition of what a good writer is, and therefore what a writer is supposed to be. It’s focused on money and I used to think it was a pretty bad take.

It’s what I thought before writing online and paying any bill with my writing. It was when I read without putting my aspirations to the test.

I had numerous examples in mind of authors, now famous, that didn’t make a dime with their writing. For this simple reason, King’s definition could not stand for me. It didn’t feel right. A talented author cannot, should not be judged on mercantile criteria alone.

All things changed when I started to create something with my writing. More than ever, writing is less about being a solitary word machine than being a part of an ecosystem that supports and answers. It’s about being part of a community of writers and builders whose themes speak to each other.

As a reader and writer, I came across a large number of spammers and scammers. A lot of which are people that, in my opinion, are trying to make money fast despite not having worked on any actual writing beforehand.

But I’ve never tipped them nor subscribed to their content. I think it’s pretty common to ignore such accounts. Medium has a convenient feature called “show less” that I find pretty efficient. On Substack, it’s another matter, as I don’t know it as well, so I’m a little more subject to spam posts.

But there are a lot of excellent writers. And by excellent, I mean genuine. That’s my criteria. If you write something online and accept to be vulnerable enough to give me some insight or feeling, then I think your piece is valuable.

That’s the content I read. It’s also the content I tip.

I try my best to give out some of the money I make online. I think it’s fair. It’s how and why a culture emerges. It has to be the good guys who win. And if a couple dollars given to a stranger can help us go into that direction, then I’ll keep doing it.

Now, Stephen King’s alleged quote is closer to my vision than ever. Not in the sense that only paid writers are good. Rather that, from what I’ve seen and from what I’ve decided to do, the most genuine voices stand out.

Perfection was never the issue. Getting tipped is never cause by perfect grammar or impeccable English. It’s never because the text is perfectly polished. It’s about touching and teaching.

When one makes a dollar online, it can only mean that someone out there gave their time or a little bit of money just to be there rather than in another place. That’s success in my book. And it must mean that some talent is at least hidden somewhere.

It’s not that King’s quote is an absolute. But know this:

If you wrote something for which I’ve sent you a couple dollars, and if you then paid a coffee with the money, I definitely consider you talented.

See you out there.

Thank you for reading.

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