John Scalzi has ten practical money tips for writers looking to make a career out of writing. Scalzi has written a lot about money and writing on his blog - and the points he’s making are interesting:
- You’re a writer. Prepare to be broke. Sad but true. And even more unfortunate is the news that even Edison died broke and he was a genius.
- Don’t quit your day job. Best way not to be broke (see above point). You know it makes sense.
- Marry (or otherwise shack up with) someone sensible with money, who has a real job. Scalzi has come under fire for this one. Personally, I couldn’t agree more. Having a partner who is smart with money has saved my ass more times than I can count.
- Your income is half of what you think it is. This is one of those things that should be obvious - not that I had ever thought about it. There is one nice thing about Ireland - writers don’t pay taxes on money earned from creative works.
- Pay off your credit cards NOW and then use them like cash later. How many have fallen for that trap?
- Don’t have the cash for it? You can’t have it. Reluctantly I agree. No matter how shiny it is…
- When you do buy something, buy the best you can afford — and then run it into the ground. This point just makes sense, whether you’re a writer or not.
- Unless you have a truly compelling reason to be there, get the hell out of New York/LA/San Francisco. I’d make a case on this for Dublin too - except that I live there.
- Know the entire writing market and place value on your own work. Charge what you’re worth, not a penny more or a penny less. If you don’t know what that is - ask the union.
- Writing is a business. Act like it. Wear a shirt and tie to work? No. Just take it seriously.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Something else worth reading: Harvard papers are to go online - free.
3. Being responsible with money is reliable enough, but for real savings I recommend a permanent and crippling sense of caviat-emptoria.
5. Don’t quite understand this. Use it like cash? Credit cards are useful for online purchases and nothing else.
7. Macs are overpriced. If you want a cheap writing computer that’ll go the distance, just get €300-worth of components from Komplett (with your delicious credit card) and throw Ubuntu on it.
…ALSO, I’m currently debating the potential utility of http://www.writersmarket.com. I’m worried it might turn out to be too US-centric, or just not that useful for a writer of short fiction. Any thoughts thereon?
writersmarket.com seems a bit too US-centric.
Every publisher/agent recommends the Writers and Artists Year Book for the UK and Ireland. I’m not sure if it’s worth getting every year - unless you are definitely looking to make a career out of it.
As for the Mac argument: we won’t pander to your poppy-cock here. Tsch!