Quit Your Day Job, A Guide for the Self Published Author

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October 2, at 3: I work at a bank as a secretary. My capstone project is revising a book I wrote. I blare music so loud that all thoughts but creativity are blocked. I think that even if I ever became famous with my writing, I would not quit a day job. I need it for ideas!

October 2, at 4: I stay up late, get up early, record on my voice recorder, write notes on my smart phone. I am constently reading and writing trying to give myself the next big thought or idea. I write non-fiction, but have begun to tamper with the idea of wrting a novel. I have the concepts written down and will begin working on it once I finish my latest non-fiction book about living this life in Christ.

The journey is long, but I will survive. By the way I work as a tutor and take odd jobs as I can.

Book Review – Quit Your Day Job, A Guide for the Self Published Author

I stay up late every night about writing my epic poem in blank verse about scientists that I call the Hermead. So far the past year I have written about 40, lines covering the the lives of 15 Greek philosophers. I plan to write narrative biographical poems about the lives of about scientists. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Is it time to quit your day job and become a full-time writer? Part 2 — Realistic Expectations Like what you read?

Why I Made the Leap Now…

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Any way keep up wrinting. Alex December 5, at 4: Iain Forbes November 5, at 9: Why not start collecting my Unique poems. Hamilton November 3, at 3: Sumiko Saulson November 3, at 3: Trevor Lewis November 3, at 3: Kim October 2, at 5: Lisa Scullard October 2, at 3: Jodi October 2, at 3: Larry A Cochran October 2, at 4: Simon Seamount October 2, at 3: Leave a Reply Cancel reply.

This is Lulu https: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Please join the conversation via the comments box. I am coming to this post late but just wanna chime in and say how much I agree with you! Personally I think I will be bored if writing is my only career. When I was working part time it was really ideal.

I worked a non writing related job and it was great. Now I have a job that leaves me morning free and has a lot of down time at work. A job allows me not to fret about the bills, and also provides me experiences to fuel my writing. Also, I get to socialise. I was brought up by a professional full-time woman novelist who wrote over novels, and am myself a full-time professional author, supporting my large family on my income from both traditional and self-published books.

Is my work stale? I hope not, possibly because I take care to write in several different genres under different names.

Do I knuckle down and write a thousand words every day? Not always, but then I also home-educate some of my special needs kids, so writing has to be slotted into early mornings and evenings mostly.

Why You Shouldn’t Give Up the Day Job

Because some of us are full-time, have been for many years, are not going stale, and are still doing okay on it financially — though adapting to circumstances has become the name of the game these days. Just saying, keep an open mind. So I need my successful business to help me to help other people with theirs, if that makes sense. For years, when I was working full-time, I wrote during my lunch hour and at weekends. Until and was made redundant.

Writing is my escape into another world, my way to take a break from toddler tantrums and get away from the mundane troubles of parenting. Similarly, my prior career was in the corporate world, and writing served the same function.

That said, I hope to eventually be a full-time indie author, working while the kids are in school, and at night. I plan to independently publish, and with a background in business, I will run the publishing side of writing as a true business, with marketing plans and project management and everything in between. Megan — I would agree with you. With a similar background in business and IT, how lucky are we that we can create and then manage the business too!

They are two very different roles. I met Joanna when she was here in Toronto this past summer and I thought then how fantastic it was — she has her public speaking, her podcasts, her fiction, her nonfiction. You know what they say about be careful what you wish for! I hear some wonderful life stories from the girls at work all fodder for my books plus I find I can bat ideas off them. For example, I was worried about my Regency heroine getting pregnant when acquiring a lover and there followed a very earthy and lively debate about contraception.

From it I was able to come up with a solution. Of course us writers have a certain social responsibility too, as we could influence a whole generation with our publications. Ever since I was a child, I wanted to be a writer, but when I was in my last year at school, my dream of setting myself up in a garret yes, that was really what I wanted! Within a couple of years of joining the world of work, I realised that I could earn my living from writing by becoming first a journalist, then a PR consultant, and finally working for charities, before taking the plunge last year to give up the day job.

In the UK, at least, we now have career politicians who have never worked in any other sphere. Like Orna said, having all the time in the day to write does not necessarily make one more productive.

Opinion: Why Writing Should Not Be Your First Career

If I do succeed and become a full-time author, the friendships and connections I have made since I started publishing should hopefully keep me grounded in reality. Well said, I think a part-time job in the literary world is ideal, although I found that when I was working in a bookshop talking books all day, I had very little creativity left for writing in the evening. For me a completely separate career combined with writing works better. I am trying to get back to a four day week, but that is some way away yet. I can see how not working at all; or having writing be your sole source of income, could either put too much pressure on your writing, or disconnect you too much from the real world most people live in.

On the other hand I think the easiest way to get a book done is to sit down and write it, for hours and hours each day, and have it be your only focus. I think writers need to develop skills so they can start their own businesses, which gives them schedule flexibility to really put their writing first, when they need to. At least us writers can usually work well into our retirement so at least we have time…?

In , for health and family reasons, I wrapped up a business in Dublin and moved to London and it was my intention to write full time, once I was finished treatment. I did for a while and I wrote very little. If I know I have all day to write, nothing happens ….

Thanks for writing about this!

How right you are Orna! Four years ago when we moved away from the country and also to London, I had a few months when I was meant to be writing full-time, but got virtually nothing done. Instead I became a master procrastinator. Nowadays, with the advent of the Internet one can be exposed to a whole range of experiences and information that, even just a few years ago, would have been impossible.

Personally, I find lengthy serials dull — the stories are usually not epic enough to maintain my interest. Formula plots and writing usually becomes dull without the epic explosions and comical villains of Bond films or the genius of Tolkien.

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