I have been thinking about this a lot. I know what I care about. I just don’t know how to do it and support a family at the same time. Perhaps you have ideas. Let’s start with what I want.
I want to write.
I was doing my thesis when I got sucked into a game called Neverwinter Nights. I played a character in a persistent world for over a year. The bio was ten pages long. When I turned it in, the DM said,
“You could write a book.”
And yeah, I know. Perhaps it was his way of saying the bio was too long, but perhaps he was being sincere. Maybe I could write a book. Maybe . . .
Later I found myself in a bad spot while writing the dissertation. There was a chapter I didn’t know how to do. So I stuck the whole thing in a drawer and began to write The Novel.
Sounds easy. It isn’t. Getting that many damn words on the page day after day after day—words you actually like—words you wouldn’t mind other people reading—it’s hard.
When you’re trying to write a novel, the Internet is Death. I camped out at Barnes & Noble. On those rare days where I made my word count (or the many other times when I didn’t), I would go down to the writing section and find something to read. I found Writing Down the Bones this way. On the Amazon scale, I give it 10 stars.
At the end of the month, I wanted to keep going so I added two more weeks. When I was done, I didn’t have a novel. I didn’t even have 50,000 words. I had 22,000. Part of a novel. But I also came away with something else. I knew this was something that I could do, and I loved every minute of it.
Fast forward to now. I’ve got log lines for three novels. The first is a stand-alone (sci-fi). The others could work either as stand-alones or parts of a series (one fantasy, one sci-fi). The main reason I hang around here is research. (If a little rationality rubs off, so be it.)
From whatI’veread, it takes about 10 years (or 5 books) before you are self-sufficient as a writer, and that’s if everything goes well. I would like to know how to support a family doing something that doesn’t sap my creative energies that leaves at least four hours a day to write. (Preferably the first four because I have found these to be the most productive.)
Alexandra Erin solved this probably by writing serial webfiction in her spare time, building an audience, until her regular income from it was sufficient that she could quit her day job. Her primary storyline is still updated and available for free, supported by advertisements and donations. She’s recently begun experimenting with additional e-books for sale.
Her definition of “sufficient” is probably different than yours (I think it was something like $1000/month). If you’re raising a family you probably won’t be able to quit your day job anytime soon, but you can work on projects that that at least get some supplemental income while you’re honing your craft. Bearing in mind that serial webfiction has a different form to it than a novel does and you’d need to plan accordingly.
A few other people have done the same thing but with webcomics. However, most webcomics never become popular enough to earn any reasonable kind of income.
She actually originally describe her website as “like a webcomic! Without pictures!”
I think webcomics and webfiction alike are going to come down to the quality, and uniqueness. Most webcomics don’t make much money but most webcomics are also crap and/or identical to a hundred other webcomics. I read a sizeable number of webcomics but almost every one of them is a unique genre.
In any case, the main point is that if you’ve already decided you’d like to hone a craft, serial webcontent provides a way to do so that will get you feedback and provide you with some level of compensation for your work, even if it’s not enough to live on by itself.
Read J.A. Konrath’s blog, or pm me your email and I’ll send you the ebook of his collected, organised advice on making money writing, with a strong emphasis on ebooks/the Kindle. It seems likely that ebooks are a disruptive innovation and at least the early adopters can take advantage of this.
If you can write publishable fiction, you can write advertising copy. This is a relatively difficult field to break into, and at least at first the pay is abombinable, but if you can write it quickly and at reliable quality there is never ending work, and you can do as much as you want.
I have been thinking about this a lot. I know what I care about. I just don’t know how to do it and support a family at the same time. Perhaps you have ideas. Let’s start with what I want.
I want to write.
I was doing my thesis when I got sucked into a game called Neverwinter Nights. I played a character in a persistent world for over a year. The bio was ten pages long. When I turned it in, the DM said,
“You could write a book.”
And yeah, I know. Perhaps it was his way of saying the bio was too long, but perhaps he was being sincere. Maybe I could write a book. Maybe . . .
Later I found myself in a bad spot while writing the dissertation. There was a chapter I didn’t know how to do. So I stuck the whole thing in a drawer and began to write The Novel.
I bought a copy of No Plot, No Problem and held my own private NaNoWriMo.
50,000 words. 30 days. 1666 words per day.
Sounds easy. It isn’t. Getting that many damn words on the page day after day after day—words you actually like—words you wouldn’t mind other people reading—it’s hard.
When you’re trying to write a novel, the Internet is Death. I camped out at Barnes & Noble. On those rare days where I made my word count (or the many other times when I didn’t), I would go down to the writing section and find something to read. I found Writing Down the Bones this way. On the Amazon scale, I give it 10 stars.
At the end of the month, I wanted to keep going so I added two more weeks. When I was done, I didn’t have a novel. I didn’t even have 50,000 words. I had 22,000. Part of a novel. But I also came away with something else. I knew this was something that I could do, and I loved every minute of it.
Fast forward to now. I’ve got log lines for three novels. The first is a stand-alone (sci-fi). The others could work either as stand-alones or parts of a series (one fantasy, one sci-fi). The main reason I hang around here is research. (If a little rationality rubs off, so be it.)
From what I’ve read, it takes about 10 years (or 5 books) before you are self-sufficient as a writer, and that’s if everything goes well. I would like to know how to support a family doing something that doesn’t sap my creative energies that leaves at least four hours a day to write. (Preferably the first four because I have found these to be the most productive.)
Ideas?
Alexandra Erin solved this probably by writing serial webfiction in her spare time, building an audience, until her regular income from it was sufficient that she could quit her day job. Her primary storyline is still updated and available for free, supported by advertisements and donations. She’s recently begun experimenting with additional e-books for sale.
Her definition of “sufficient” is probably different than yours (I think it was something like $1000/month). If you’re raising a family you probably won’t be able to quit your day job anytime soon, but you can work on projects that that at least get some supplemental income while you’re honing your craft. Bearing in mind that serial webfiction has a different form to it than a novel does and you’d need to plan accordingly.
A few other people have done the same thing but with webcomics. However, most webcomics never become popular enough to earn any reasonable kind of income.
She actually originally describe her website as “like a webcomic! Without pictures!”
I think webcomics and webfiction alike are going to come down to the quality, and uniqueness. Most webcomics don’t make much money but most webcomics are also crap and/or identical to a hundred other webcomics. I read a sizeable number of webcomics but almost every one of them is a unique genre.
In any case, the main point is that if you’ve already decided you’d like to hone a craft, serial webcontent provides a way to do so that will get you feedback and provide you with some level of compensation for your work, even if it’s not enough to live on by itself.
I plan to get published and quit when royalties are enough. But that wasn’t my question. I want to know what to do for the day job.
Read J.A. Konrath’s blog, or pm me your email and I’ll send you the ebook of his collected, organised advice on making money writing, with a strong emphasis on ebooks/the Kindle. It seems likely that ebooks are a disruptive innovation and at least the early adopters can take advantage of this.
Charlie Strosss’ Common Misconceptions About Publishing may also be useful, as well as various stuff on John Scalzi’s blog.
If you can write publishable fiction, you can write advertising copy. This is a relatively difficult field to break into, and at least at first the pay is abombinable, but if you can write it quickly and at reliable quality there is never ending work, and you can do as much as you want.
Good point about advertising. I’ll look into that.