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- Aug 25, 2011
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Man, this is work. It is really, truly work.
In addition to writing, I juggle, and self-pub often reminds me of juggling. It's hard enough to learn to juggle three objects at a performance level. But where I am with the dual job of publishing + writing feels sometimes like juggling seven flaming torches with a new partner while riding a unicycle. And, to extend the metaphor, Amazon keeps messing with my unicycle's tire!
I know it's difficult to believe I'd have any complaints when I'm earning a middle-class living at writing, which is what a lot of writers dream of, right? (Right after they quit dreaming they'll be Stephen King and understand how unlikely that is.) You'll think, "Are you cray-cray for complaining about any part of this?" I understand that. I would have asked the same thing five years ago. But this takes effort, and more success means more work (not less, as a person might assume initially). Also, a book's sales usually tail off rather quickly, and you need to publish another book soon if this is now how you pay your bills...or you'll find the bank repossessing your house.
I'm not one of the book-per-month writers, but I do draft quickly, and I seldom take two days off in a row. I would love to have a break to refill that creative well. Maybe this coming year I will take one, even knowing it will likely hurt my income in at least the short term. A person--this person, at least--can't work at this level forever.
I tend not to chase trends in ads or writing exactly to market or hunting for underserved sub-genre markets or anything else. I write the best commercial/popular fiction books I can, books I'd like to read, trust my proofreader and cover artist (who are princes but took some miserable experiences of first kissing frogs to find), and accept fair offers for things I cannot do easily/quickly myself, like translations and audio. (I don't use an agent for that but deal directly and use an attorney to check any contract that's over a page long).
If you want to reach full-time income, I have no magic system for you, I'm sorry to say. (Neither does anyone else, but by gosh, they are happy to charge you $1000 for their course anyway!) My first publication in a national fiction magazine was during the waning days of the Reagan Presidency. I studied hard and wrote millions of words over the intervening years, wrote NF for cash, edited, and taught writing--anything that would help me learn more about my craft. I lived at the edge of poverty all that time because less wage work meant more time/freedom to write. (I ate okay, but I didn't buy any piece of clothing that cost over $5, go to concerts or the theater, and didn't own a cell phone until five years ago.) And during those long years, I accepted that I'd never earn over $10,000/year at novel-writing because I met very few authors who did. That I earned a good bit more for over three years now? I'm as surprised as anyone...and darned grateful.
If you are struggling with your reality not matching your hopes about your writing career (whether you are self-published or not), and despite my own current exhausted state, I'd still beg you not to lose that hope. Keep working, write because you love it (not because you hope to get rich at it), fall in love with it even harder this year, improve your craft, improve your business know-how, write fiction for far more hours every week than you hang out here or on Facebook (and track your time and use a site-blocking add-on, so you aren't fooling yourself), and don't stop trying. I can't promise things will turn out for you as they have for me, but they may, even if it takes a dash of luck and four more American Presidencies for that to happen for you too.
(As always, I don't reveal much about myself and my books here in order to avoid drive-by one-star ratings by frustrated writers, a reaction I do sympathize with but would still like to avoid. )
In addition to writing, I juggle, and self-pub often reminds me of juggling. It's hard enough to learn to juggle three objects at a performance level. But where I am with the dual job of publishing + writing feels sometimes like juggling seven flaming torches with a new partner while riding a unicycle. And, to extend the metaphor, Amazon keeps messing with my unicycle's tire!
I know it's difficult to believe I'd have any complaints when I'm earning a middle-class living at writing, which is what a lot of writers dream of, right? (Right after they quit dreaming they'll be Stephen King and understand how unlikely that is.) You'll think, "Are you cray-cray for complaining about any part of this?" I understand that. I would have asked the same thing five years ago. But this takes effort, and more success means more work (not less, as a person might assume initially). Also, a book's sales usually tail off rather quickly, and you need to publish another book soon if this is now how you pay your bills...or you'll find the bank repossessing your house.
I'm not one of the book-per-month writers, but I do draft quickly, and I seldom take two days off in a row. I would love to have a break to refill that creative well. Maybe this coming year I will take one, even knowing it will likely hurt my income in at least the short term. A person--this person, at least--can't work at this level forever.
I tend not to chase trends in ads or writing exactly to market or hunting for underserved sub-genre markets or anything else. I write the best commercial/popular fiction books I can, books I'd like to read, trust my proofreader and cover artist (who are princes but took some miserable experiences of first kissing frogs to find), and accept fair offers for things I cannot do easily/quickly myself, like translations and audio. (I don't use an agent for that but deal directly and use an attorney to check any contract that's over a page long).
If you want to reach full-time income, I have no magic system for you, I'm sorry to say. (Neither does anyone else, but by gosh, they are happy to charge you $1000 for their course anyway!) My first publication in a national fiction magazine was during the waning days of the Reagan Presidency. I studied hard and wrote millions of words over the intervening years, wrote NF for cash, edited, and taught writing--anything that would help me learn more about my craft. I lived at the edge of poverty all that time because less wage work meant more time/freedom to write. (I ate okay, but I didn't buy any piece of clothing that cost over $5, go to concerts or the theater, and didn't own a cell phone until five years ago.) And during those long years, I accepted that I'd never earn over $10,000/year at novel-writing because I met very few authors who did. That I earned a good bit more for over three years now? I'm as surprised as anyone...and darned grateful.
If you are struggling with your reality not matching your hopes about your writing career (whether you are self-published or not), and despite my own current exhausted state, I'd still beg you not to lose that hope. Keep working, write because you love it (not because you hope to get rich at it), fall in love with it even harder this year, improve your craft, improve your business know-how, write fiction for far more hours every week than you hang out here or on Facebook (and track your time and use a site-blocking add-on, so you aren't fooling yourself), and don't stop trying. I can't promise things will turn out for you as they have for me, but they may, even if it takes a dash of luck and four more American Presidencies for that to happen for you too.
(As always, I don't reveal much about myself and my books here in order to avoid drive-by one-star ratings by frustrated writers, a reaction I do sympathize with but would still like to avoid. )
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