A Post About Money

[calendula_witch]

It’s kind of taboo to talk about money. Especially for writers. John Scalzi’s recent deal is a refreshing exception; Jim Hines also shares a breakdown of his writing income every year, as do a few other writers. It’s great to get these glimpses into what’s really happening behind the vague “a good deal”, “five figures,” etc.

I’m going to tell you

Comments

[msconduct]

Thank you for this; it was really interesting. As for how to make creativity work financially, I'm afraid I don't have a great answer: when I was writing for TV, my writing partner (who is also my business partner) and I did it by having a very well-paying job (IT consultancy). As it was contract-based, we could afford to take chunks of time off. TV, in the UK anyway, pays very well per minute when you sell something, but for every comedy sketch we sold we would easily write 20 we didn't, so it was never a self-supporting proposition.

The very best of luck with the self-publishing: it's great that you've seen so many examples of success with it amongst your clients, and I hope you've been able to pick up some useful techniques. It takes what to me is a daunting amount of work on the social media front, but then of course selling takes work - why wouldn't it? Best of luck to Mark, too. I think it's great that you're both following your creative dreams even when it's not been the easiest financially. It really is inspiring.

[calendula_witch]

Thank you! We are going to keep at it as long as we can... :-) Fingers crossed!

[scarlettina]

I can refer you to a couple of really good copyeditors if you need one.

[calendula_witch]

Thank you! I've gotten a few names and offers already, though I'm a ways off from that stage of things. I'll also be talking to my (probable) co-author this evening; she might already have someone in her stable, I don't know.

In entirely unrelated news, I dreamed about you last night: you brought Mark and me breakfast in bed, with champagne, because you missed us so much. :-) It was delightful. Thank you!

[klwilliams]

You can always hire Chaz as a copy editor. To be clear: he'd do it for free, I bet.

[calendula_witch]

Chaz would be an amazing copy editor! And free sounds like something I can afford. :-) But maybe we can find some budget. Thanks!