Baby
Evil Writers 101: Writing for a Living
Julie
Butcher
I
don’t think I’ve ever met a writer who doesn’t want to quit working, stay home
and make their living from writing. Quitting the day job is the ultimate dream.
The problem is making your dreams into reality. Those pesky children seem to
want food every single day and then you need a roof, and electricity to run
your laptop, and heat in the winter is a necessity and not a luxury. If this is
a serious goal, you need to have a plan.
First
of all, you have to sell some books. To live in a modicum of comfort, you need
to have three books on the shelf for each and every member of your family. For
most people this means that their career needs to be firmly established for ten
years or more before they gain their freedom. During those ten years, you need
to figure out some things.
1.
Where
will the health insurance come from? If you are the working person who provides
this necessity, you need to plan on paying for it yourself. It isn’t cheap.
Unless you have a few hundred thousand dollars tucked away, this isn’t
optional.
2. Make
a budget and learn to stick to it. An author gets paid twice yearly and that is
a long time between paychecks. Ramen is good but it’s not that good. Also it
will make you fat so there you go.
3.
Will
any of your children be going to college when you plan to work at home? If so,
add another book on the shelf for each child in college. Even scholarship
students have expenses not covered by grants and loans
.
4.
Pay
off anything you can before you quit working outside of the home. You get bonus
points for no mortgage and a decent, paid-for car that won’t need immediate
repairs.
5.
Include
in your budget traveling expenses for conferences and conventions. You’ll need
the exposure and unless you’re a big time author, you won’t get your plane
tickets paid for you
.
6.
Don’t
forget to set money aside for promotional items. Also don’t go nuts with these.
It is kind of dumb to give away something that costs more than you make by
selling a copy of your book.
Most
of all you need to get into the habit of setting aside writing time each and
every day and sticking to your schedule.
Working from home is still working. No work, no food. Easy-peasy.
