Does Commercialism Compromise Art? [CC]

Hello Writer, and welcome back to my life.

It’s Writer Wednesday, the day I give you my tips and advice on the art and the business of writing, and tell you how I do what I do as an indie author.

Today’s question comes to us from my Patreon supporter Gerald Hornsby, who asks whether or not commercialism compromises art?

That’s a pretty big question with a complicated answer. My tl;dr response is that commercialism can compromise art, but it doesn’t have to. And whether or not it does often depends on when commercialism enters into the thought process.

So here’s the thing: throughout history, there are many, many people who have claimed that commercialism compromises art, but some of them have said so only because their own work has never been successful.

It’s a jealousy thing. Sometimes you see it in the debate between traditional publishing and indie authors, where traditionally published authors will say something like, “Oh, sure, you can go the self-publishing route, and you can even do well at it, if you’re…