Post by Mini Mia on Dec 28, 2007 22:58:09 GMT -6
An Email From Holly Lisle:
I’m setting up my work calendar for the next year, putting together my novel and nonfiction plans, and doing general time management.
Which brings me to quitting your day job.
Some of you have read my article How To Quit Your Day Job to Write Full Time. (If you haven’t, it’s here:
hollylisle.com/sendstudionx/link.php?M=847&N=3&L=1&F=T)
The problem is, things have changed since I wrote that article. In some ways, they’ve gotten worse for writers. In some ways, they’ve gotten better.
The bad news: The three book death spiral is firmly in place, breaking in to publishing is no easier than it ever was, and even when you’ve published more than thirty books, keeping any of them in print is nearly impossible, and royalties are pathetic. Advances are pretty good if you’ve been doing it for a while, but publishers are still a massive annoyance when it comes to paying what they owe in a timely fashion.
And that old advice about living on your royalties? Unless you become a bestseller and then STAY one, that will never happen. My royalty income this year (for the WHOLE year), was under a thousand dollars.
The good news: The Internet. Writers (and I’m one of them) are discovering ways to fill in for late-paying publishers, cancelled books, series killed by computer ordering, and the royalties that never come. If I were starting out as a writer today, I’d use the internet to create “royalties” before I quit the day job, and before I wrote my books.
I’m thinking about putting together a short gift e-book to show writers how to do this.
Whether you’re interested or not, please take a second to answer the quick three-question survey I’ve put together to help me figure out whether I should schedule the time to do this project:
hollylisle.com/sendstudionx/link.php?M=847&N=3&L=2&F=T
No goodies appended to this one. Just my thanks for taking a minute of your time, and a possible new resource for the site if enough people want it.
Never give up on your dreams,
Holly Lisle