Tag Archive | income

Author Confessions: You Don’t Work Do You?

Mar11
Reading Time: 3 minutes

You Don’t Work Do You?

A writer is an unusual person. It may seem like an idyllic life. Sit town and write. How hard could that be?

Until a kid wants something or the dog wants to play or your spouse needs help in the garage…

Writing is hard work and it involves concentration to put a story together. It also involves concentrated time and effort. Hopefully some skill.

If I want to set a goal to write a chapter a day I  can usually manage that in an hour. Well, if a book takes say, 35 hours to write, then why couldn’t I knock that out in a week?

Because some of writing is breathing, praying, researching, thinking, and reading. Non-fiction could possibly go faster but it’s still not easy to put words on a page in a way that would be good, and impact a reader. Something that someone would want to read.

Take that 35-40 hours of writing time for a book that might take 6 hours to read. Add editing. An author will read through a book many times. It could take me two days minimum to usually do one round of edits on a book. That’s a lot of concentrated time considering the overused words, phrasing, plot lines, time consistency throughout the story, great beginnings and endings to a chapter, finding typos, tightening up sentences and paragraphs, and maybe even deleting unnecessary words or phrases.

Then making sure the story engages all the senses without using the words: feel, look, taste, hear,  see and smell.

Oh, and after that, grammar. Commas, quotation marks, hyphens, spelling … Then you submit it and the process begins all over when another set of eyes surveys the version you sent. I have some novels with so many files of edits it is unbelievable.

Even with all that being done by myself and maybe two other editors, if I go back and read older works I can see how I could have done it better.

Are you exhausted yet? All of this is without a penny coming into my checking account.

Do I work? Yes. And hard.

My husband will lament that I don’t make what I’m worth for writing books. He then will say, “But that doesn’t seem to bother you.”

Sure, a nice income would be lovely, but it’s more about heart impact than it is about making money. The first book I ever wrote I wrote for myself. I’m my first audience. Now I could do that and enjoy the stories without ever doing one edit. That would be selfish though. If God gives me a story why wouldn’t I share that with others? If God leads me to publish, then I need to be as obedient to Him in writing the first draft as I am with every subsequent edit.

Is it work? Absolutely. Unless God decides to bless I will never receive an income equal to the time I put into my stories. I’d be wealthier working at a fast-food restaurant. (I’ll pass, thank you. Been there, done that!). It’s a good thing I enjoy what I do—at least most of the time!

When you see a book for sale for $18.00, realize that there was a lot of work for that amount of money. It amazes me how someone will pay $5 for a cup of coffee that lasts maybe 30 minutes? A book can be read in maybe 6 hours – and more than once! Wouldn’t that be worth $30 then? And e-books are even cheaper! They never grow cold or contain calories!

If you do spend that money, and enjoy the work of an author, please give them a review on Amazon. Only a few words are needed. It may not fill our bank accounts, but it will help others find our books and in time that might net us a little bit of compensation for our labors. Let them know you appreciate their hard work as well as the labors of their editors, marketing people, layout and cover artists.

Anticipating the Holiday Rudeness

Nov25
Reading Time: 3 minutes

I have a friend who has been a cheerleader of my writing from day one. He often says “Don’t forget the little people when you make it big.”

I love his “when.”

Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Then there is someone in my life who has said, “Nice little hobby you have there. You won’t make any money at it.”

Or how about this comment, “Oh, so is that what you’re doing now? How nice for you. When are you going to get a real job?”

The holidays bring out the worst in people. I try to generally be gracious to those who don’t understand that my writing and editing is a real job and that I work very hard at it. I will be forever grateful for those people who have supported, encouraged and believed in me and my writing before I’ve made my mark on the publishing world.

So often authors cite parents or spouse as being those supporters. That’s not the case for me. My grandmother is a grand cheerleader though.

The comment I’ve heard before and expect to hear on Thanksgiving Day though is this: “How much money do you make?”

Stop. Wait. Excuse me? Where in any part of civilization is this an appropriate question? Between authors it might be acceptable in discussing the challenge to actually talk about *gasp* money, but if I went to my family members and asked how much they got paid for the work they do, well, they would be offended.

So what makes any of them think it’s okay to ask me such a question? Stephen King doesn’t make his tax return public knowledge, does he?

Since I write historical fiction I’m going to revert back to a more respectable time when people did not ask such questions. Wait. Even in Regency England a man was known by how much he made a year and it was used as a measuring stick to determine whether he was worthy husband material.

But I’m not looking for a husband.

So my response? “Thank you for your interest in my writing. In response to your question, it’s none of your business.”

Beth Ziarnik and me. She was the "Paul" to my "Timothy" at my first writer's conference (Write to Publish)

Beth Ziarnik and me. She was the “Paul” to my “Timothy” at my first writer’s conference (Write to Publish)

It isn’t. There is nothing that says I have to answer every question posed to me no matter how authentic and real I strive to be in my life.  Some things can be and should be private. The fact is, the amount of money I earn, much like the size of my clothing, does not determine my value in the eyes of God. He is the reason I write and yes, the IRS will know, but unless I start making millions, I doubt I will ever want to share that kind of information, especially with those who have not encouraged and supported me.

Will Smith has said “If you are absent during my struggle, don’t expect to be present during my success.” Well said, Will.

Have a wonderful thanksgiving and for those of you who have prayed, supported and encouraged me on my journey (and you know who you are!), I am thanking God for the gift of you in my life. I may not make much money now, but I’m rich in the relationships my writing has brought into my life.