Are you a writer? Well, unless a rich
relative recently left you a million-dollar bequest in a will or you have a
winning lottery ticket in your safe deposit box, it is doubtful you will be
able to quit your day job. If writing full time is your goal, there are three essentials to
consider when contemplating writing full time. They are:
·
Personal finances
·
Assignment or publication frequency
·
Contract and deadline obligations
If you are
writing on spec or as a freelancer, how often are you selling your work or
getting assignments? If you are writing
books, will you receive an advance from your publisher and, if so, how long can
you live on it? (The advance will
probably be paid in increments as you meet your submission deadlines.)
What is your
financial situation? How much money do
you need each month to meet obligations such as rent or mortgage and
utilities? Do others depend on your
income? Notice I didn’t include food. How
literally are you living the starving artist label? How much money will you need to market your
work? In other words, do you know what it will cost you to become a full time
writer?
Review your
current income and expenses. Determine what you are willing to give up and what
you can afford to spend on your business. How much help and support will you
get from your spouse or family? After
you use up your vacation time, how many unpaid days off will your employer
allow? How many can you afford to take?
Until you are
able to leave the employment that pays the bills, you will be working two jobs.
Give some thought to how you will budget time as well as money.
The preceding
paragraphs are pulled from Dollars and
Sense for Writers, Chapter One. So many readers, reading articles about J.
K. Rowling’s wealth, think all writers make a lot of money. Nothing could be
further from the truth. Being a writer is not easy and eking out a living from it is
extremely difficult. But if you truly
love to write, you’ll do it anyway. Just
like I do.
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