AuthorJim Flynn is a humorist, writer and novelist. He is available for speaking engagements. To contact email: [email protected] Archives
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Writer Industrial Complex1/10/2026 This week's excerpt from Press The Button.
********************* Remember these ads? Soft sell: “We’re looking for people who like to draw.” Right next to a picture of Norman Rockwell. Like Norman himself was running HR. Hard sell: A photo of an artist at an easel, looking straight at you. Caption: “Fed up? With your present job? Your pay? Your future?” Which—yes. Obviously. That’s why I’m reading magazine ads like they’re fortune cookies. Nobody’s thinking, “No thanks. I love my current job walking behind circus elephants with a shovel. It was worth it, four years of majoring in Art History.” These ads were for the Famous Artists School of Westport, Connecticut. Westport had a vibe. You couldn’t throw a Frisbee without hitting a famous artist-- or a guy who told you he was a famous artist. He had opinions. Mostly about the use of shadows. The Famous Artists School had a selective admissions policy. If you sent them money… you were selected. They offered mail-order art lessons and a big stack of expensive books. But that wasn’t what they were really selling. They were selling hope. Hope is the most profitable product ever invented. Right after gym memberships. The Famous Artists School peaked in the 1960s. Then technology changed. Drawing faded. So now we write novels. Because writing-- isn't threatened by technology, right? And there's not much competition. Except for six million people writing vampire romances. And Artificial Intelligence. The modern version of the Famous Artists School is what I call The Writer Industrial Complex. There’s a lot of money in writing. I know because I’ve personally contributed. The money isn’t made by people writing books. It’s made by people explaining—very confidently-- the easy hacks to writing success. We’ll get into that. As soon as I finish this webinar I already paid for: Unlocking Your Seven-Figure Author Mindset. Actual writing not included. Well, you better be successful writing. Because the circus went out of business. And now the elephant is writing a dystopian vampire romance. *********************** As long as you're here: Be Sincere Even When You Don't Mean It is having a resurgence in Australia. Why Australia? I don't know. But haven't you always wanted to be like Crocodile Dundee? Take a look, over at Amazon. The audiobook version features terrific narration by Gary Williams. also available in paperback and eBook versions. just click on the image below
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Henya Drescher
1/19/2026 01:55:09 pm
Oh how quickly we forget.
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