On My Mind: eBook Retailers

  

 Barnes & Noble is running a pre-order sale for the next couple of days - apparently on any book up for pre-order - though the only book I have up for pre-order right now is THE STORM PRINCESS AND THE RAVEN KING (out May 31!). So, if you're a Nook reader, you can pre-order THE STORM PRINCESS AND THE RAVEN KING for 25% off from April 20-22 with the code PREORDER25. Order other books, too! Have a Nook party that goes on forever, because the presents will keep arriving for a long time!

A bunch of us who self-publish - this could be true of trad-pub sales, too, but we can't see which retailer sales come from on those numbers - have noticed that our sales on B&N have gone way down. I don't have any exact metrics, but even with new releases, I can see that my payments from B&N are much lower. Several other authors have mentioned it, too, along with a few readers who use Nook saying that it's super hard to find books on their device. It's really too bad. Everyone bitches about Amazon's dominance over the book-buying marketplace, but then the sites that could be providing competition - like B&N, Apple Books, Google Books - seem to be phoning in the effort. The only retailer that seems to be really working at competing with Amazon, and doing a creditable job of it, is Kobo. With the recent merger/acquisition (I'm not sure which it is) of Smashwords and D2D, maybe they'll up their efforts. We can hope!

And, apparently, that's what's on MY mind this week :-) 

 

The high cost of living.

 Well, I'm moving again. Not by choice. The landlord has decided to sell the place where I'm living and for the next ten or so days I'm scrambling to find a place to live, to move into the new place, and, of course, I'm trying to afford the first month, last month and deposit. 

Yay.

The subject for this week is "What's on your mind?" That pretty much sums it up, I'm afraid. It is all-consuming. I hate moving. I hate the uncertainty. I am grateful I made the latest novel deadline, but that's really all I've got.

I need a home. again. this is four times in the last seven years I've had a landlord pull this sort of thing on me. I get it, you sell when the market is good, but seriously, they're all dying in my books. It's the only catharsis I'm getting out of this. 

If you have a spae good thought or prayer to shoot this way, they are appreciated.

Keep smilin,

Jim

Writing for a Living

 Full time writer? Used to be. Not anymore. These days, out of necessity, there's a day job gumming up the works. I used to nurse a fantasy about being able to write swiftly enough and well enough that I'd be able to out earn my day job with books. It might still be possible and I'm still working on building a system to support that effort. Writing full time was a great privilege. But it also wasn't writing full time. It was writing half time. So maybe I've never really been a full time writer. Or maybe I'm more of one now that I'm a technical writer getting paid for what I write on a consistent basis. That's a little soul crushing though, because I don't even want to read what I write in those documents. Too few explosions, honestly. No romance at all, so what's the point?

The writing half time crack comes out of the fact that I had to make a deal in order to give the whole writing full time thing a go when I first embarked on it. I had to promise to take care of everything that supported day to day life. The house. The cooking. The cleaning. The finances. The errands big and small. ALL THE THINGS. It worked for many a long year. I enjoyed it all very much. Getting to write for several hours a day. Taking care of my family. But life changes. Breadwinners lose jobs. Loved ones die. You lose your home. It doesn't matter what the story is. Stuff just happens. And then you recover from it. Recovery meant me returning to the workforce. If you think THAT was a simple thing after fifteen years of not working for someone - dang. I have a great job with a great team that's full of other authors and aspiring authors. We do Nanowrimo each November (no one ever 'wins' because work) but we do try to support one another.

But. I always have my eye on what tweak can I make in my life to steal a little more writing time? Another block of space that would let me write.

I had the writer-without-a-day-job gig. I want it back.

Writing Timeline

Back in 2015, when I was writing The Mars Strain, my dream was to retire from my lab job and become a full-time writer after I had ten books in my backlist. Fast-forward a few years and, faced with a high-stress job and a chronic disease, I made the choice to retire from the corporate world—without a single published book to my name! 

What about my dream to write full-time? It was still there and even though the circumstances weren’t what I’d planned, I held on to it tight. 

James and KAK both shared about the insane healthcare costs in the US. It’s a fact that weighs heavily on me as I easily take up about 20% of my husband’s income. I’m incredibly blessed to have a partner who whole heartedly believes in our vows: for richer—for poorer, in sickness and in health. Without his support I wouldn’t be writing and without his full-time job with benes…well, let’s just say the stress may have taken me. 

Like Jeffe said yesterday: plan and budget…and then add a few years to that timeline. Being a full-time writer can be one of the most rewarding choices! But, as with anything, don’t go into it blind. If you’ve decided to become a writer, no matter how much time you’re able to devote to it, I hope it brings you joy and that you quickly learn what took me so long to figure out: your worth is not tied to what you create. 

Letting go of the guilt and ties of self-worth to my writing has been freeing. Writing once again brings me happiness and is actually therapeutic. I believe writing came to me at a time I needed it, not when I planned for it, but I'm learning to embrace things as they come. 

Do you have a full or part time job along with your writing? Do you have a 10 year plan?  

Three Things I Did to Sustain a Full-time Writing Career

The audiobook of BRIGHT FAMILIAR is now available! And GREY MAGIC in audio will be out very soon!! 

This week at the SFF Seven our topic is: Being a full-time writer – is it your dream? How do you pay for life and write, too?

In this instance we're defining "full-time writer" as someone who doesn't have a day job or other paying occupation that competes with writing. Most of us - unless we marry money or inherit a trust fund - continue to work jobs even after our first books are published. Sometimes for a LONG time after that. For myself, I continued to have essentially two careers for just over twenty years after my first publication. 

I worked in environmental consulting while all the while carving out time and energy to write. I kept waiting for my writing income to match my day-job salary - even not figuring in benefits! - and it never got there. Eventually life made the decision for me: my primary project got axed, our team dissolved, and I was laid off with decent severance. 

And, as it was absolutely my dream and my goal, I made the decision to try to have only one career at that point. 

It hasn't been easy! KAK's post from yesterday about being exacting with a budget is super important. This is especially true if, like her, you have only yourself to count on for income. Or if, like me, you are the primary breadwinner for your family. When authors give advice on managing finances as a full-time writer, it behooves you to pay attention to what other financial help they have. It might not be a trust fund, but having a spouse with a steady salary (and benefits!) goes a long way. Other authors live on retirement income or other, similar sources. 

So, how have I done it? 

1) Meticulous budgeting. 

As much as I can, I budget a quarter at a time. Writing income is volatile and, unless you're making buckets of it, you can't count on being able to pay the bills with income from a single month as you can with a regular paycheck. As KAK mentions, you can't figure your disposable income by simply subtracting your expenses from that month's income. You may need that "leftover" money for next month, or the month after. The financial gymnastics require creativity and flexibility.

2) Tracking sales

Data is everything! You can't afford to be only a dreamy creative. You have to wear your business hat and crunch the data from your royalty reports. You have to be ready to be stern with yourself and pay attention to which efforts generate income and which don't. You may find you can't afford those passion projects if your writing is what puts food on the table. OR, that you can afford them only if other projects are paying the bills.

3) Self-Publishing

If writing income is volatile, then income from traditional publishing has the lowest evaporation temperature. It comes, it goes - often on an annual or semi-annual basis. Quarterly is likely the most frequently you'll get paid, and every royalty check is a surprise! Again, unless they're cutting you BIG checks, it likely won't be enough to live on. This is why so many trad-pubbed authors also teach or have other side gigs. Self-publishing provides monthly income. Yes, it fluctuates, but you can also track sales and predict how much money will arrive in two months. Taking the surprise out of the equation helps immensely! You're also not subject to the whims of traditional publishing on a number of levels.

Those are three practices that have helped me manage a career as a full-time writing with essentially no other income. The other, quite obvious step, would be to make buckets of money and never have to think about budgeting again. 

Maybe someday!

Wanna Be A Full-Time Writer? How Good Are You With a Budget?

Being a full-time writer: Is it my dream? How do/will I pay for "life" and write too?

vigorously rubs face

Well, I am a full-time writer, which sometimes translates to living at or below poverty depending on sales.  Shocked? Don't be. Like most creative professions, less than 1% achieve the success that's portrayed in popular entertainment. 

Look--I say this from experience--anyone who is going to walk away from a steady paycheck that affords a middle-class existence (or better) has to accept strict budgeting and lifestyle-reduction changes. This is not an avocado toast soapbox; that's a wholly different discussion. I'm talking about living within seasons of feast and famine. I'm talking about going from having a percent of monthly income being "disposable" after paying essential bills and investments to cutting out things that aren't utilities, rent/mortgage, groceries, car payments, and health insurance. It's a hell of a shock to the system to shift from stability to insecurity. Monthly mani-pedis? Gone. Thursday drinks with the gang? Not every week you don't. That vacation to the Con you attend every year? Eh...maybe. That's now a business cost, so maybe, but you've got to generate enough annual revenue in order to be able to take that as a tax write-off. 

As James mentioned yesterday, US health insurance is an obscene cost of living to which you then have to add actual health care costs--ya know, the list of stuff insurance requires you to pay on top of your premium and deductible and the even longer list of stuff insurance simply doesn't cover. Yes, health insurance costs more than my mortgage. Yes, for the moment, I'm a relatively healthy person. However, health insurance is an inescapable cost at my age, and it's not like I can get a roommate to help share the costs of health insurance (adding a person to the policy would triple the costs!). And predicting the annual increase in premiums? Fugetaboutit, which makes it a bitch to budget. Alas, I can't control the capitalist death-panels that are the US health industry, so I do things like drive a 20yr old car that's paid off and live in a state that doesn't charge an annual property tax on vehicles. Some months are ramen months, and others are chicken thighs. I take the savings where I can when I can. 

Finally, there's the actual business costs. As an indie author, my costs of publishing are incurred upfront (editing, art, marketing, etc.). So if I want to release a book, I have to budget for that. Then I have to estimate when I'll recoup my costs and start generating a profit. Sometimes release dates get pushed because I don't have that couple of grand on hand. There's a reason many authors turn to Kickstarter or the like to fund their indie books. Writing is a constant hustle. You've got to keep producing to keep a market presence. If you lose market presence, you've got to start over to rebuild it, which means recouping your investment is going to take longer. The upshot of being a novelist, however, is that our backlists continue to generate income (assuming we own the rights). The theory is the bigger your backlist, the bigger the financial cushion, the bigger the breath you can take because you can actually pay your bills...and maybe pay to replace that busted water heater.  Warm showers are a wonderful thing, after all. 

None of this is to say you can't have fun and hang with friends while being a full-time writer, but the lifestyle of financial instability does require tradeoffs and often saying "no" to invitations you simply can't afford anymore. For someone who had success in the corporate world, it can be a bitter pill to feel like you're starting over on the bottom rung of life again, even though you're changing careers to something you love. If you're not honest with yourself about everything the change entails, you're going to be in for a world of hurt and embarrassment. Don't pull the "I quit" switch until you've got a plan, a budget, and a slew of reasonable expectations for the next 10 years. 

On Being A Full-Time Writer...

 The subject of the week is Being a Full-Time writer: is it your dream? How do you pay for it?

I AM a full-time writer. I also work a full-time job and have since I started writing. In the very beginning, I worked at a restaurant five to six nights a  week, took a bus from the place were y wife worked in the daytime and she would pick me up around 11 PM every night that I worked. It wasn't exactly fun, but it mostly paid the bills.

That's the catch, you see, paying the bills. When I started as a writer I did a lot of work for hire. Just in case you don't understand that concept yet (I most certainly didn't when I started out) that's when you write for somebody else's intellectual property. The first thing I ever wrote that got published was an eight-page story for Clive Barker's Hellraiser comic. The second thing I got paid for was an Iron Man story that never did see print. Number three was a comic book based on a video game. The fourth was Clive barker's Nightbreed comic, and then I started doing work for roleplaying game companies. All of that was work where they paid me but got to keep the copyright for what I wrote. 

for the record, I'm okay with that. It took me about seven seconds to understand the concept. My work. Their money. They keep my work. How much is it worth to me? That varied a lot. Let's leave it at this: I was making damned decent scratch and some of those works allowed me to pay y bills when the actual day job didn't. Why was that? Because my wife had health issues and paying for insurance took as much money as paying the monthly rent. 

We always make choices Thanks to the preposterously stupid health costs in this country, I required two jobs (along with my wife's employment) to cover the rising costs of health insurance and medications. for the record, I still wound up declaring bankruptcy because of medical bilks at one point. Do I sound bitter? It's only because I am.

My point is, that I have always been a fulltime writer. From day one. Long before I sold anything, I wrote from four to six hours a day. Once I started selling it became longer hours, and coffee became my best friend for YEARS. I also used to put out roughly 5,000 words on an average day, with my best day ever being 11,700 words in one eight-hour stint. If I got the novel finished by the end of that particular month there was a one thousand dollar bonus. Dance monkey, dance!

I have also, with very rare exceptions, worked at least a part-time job ever since The exceptions were all medically related, by the way. Three months off for knee surgery and recovery, and then a little over a year off for cancer and the chemotherapy and radiation treatments, plus recovery time. 

I still write every day. I still work at least four days a week. I still like having medical insurance and sometimes that's damned hard to afford.

You want to be a writer? You write. You want to pay the bills? Well, I didn't marry rich, so I work. This isn't something that bothers me at all I knew the price of admission when I started on this ride, and I've never had a problem with it.  Writing is my passion, and writing never seems like work to me.

My point is simple: We do what we must. I'm hardly the only one, believe me. 

I have over 40 novel-length works to y name. I'm working on three more novels right now, as well as several short stories, collaborative efforts, and two novellas. I have referred to myself as the modern equivalent of a pulp writer more than once because compared to a lot of writers, I have a rather epic word count, 

If you're curious you can see most of my publications listed right here.  

A full BIBLIOGRAPHY is available too.

Fierce Hearts and Adamant Spirits: Charity Anthologies for Ukraine

Hey all! I wanted to use this week's space to share about a project that Jeffe Kennedy and I are involved in. The Romantic Fantasy Shelf put together two amazing anthologies recently that released on March 31st. All proceeds go to the International Rescue Committee which is donating all raised funds to Ukrainian refugees. Receipts will be posted publicly by the Romantic Fantasy Shelf.

Jeffe and I have work in Fierce Hearts, an anthology filled with romantic fantasy and fantasy romance short stories, novelettes, novellas, novels, and chapter samplers for anticipated novels. Adamant Spirits is of the paranormal/sci-fi/urban fantasy romance variety. Over 40+ authors contributed to each book, totaling over 1.1 million donated words. 

We would love your support! It's for such a good cause. As of 4/5/22, 3266+ copies had been sold, for a total of $11,879 raised. That's amazing, and I cannot wait to see how much we raise over the next few months. 

If you'd like to check out these anthologies, I've included the universal links to Fierce Hearts and Adamant Spirits. Paperbacks will be available soon!

Thank you!

~ Charissa