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Write when you get work
So, I was talking with my sister on the phone, playing catch-up. A couple months ago, she’d finished an online retraining course with a “guaranteed” job at the far end of the tunnel, except — you can see this coming, right? — the projected number of jobs aren’t there. Nobody figured that the senior people in the bidness who had been laid off would be willing to go for the junior positions in order to, I dunno, keep their health coverage and some money coming in. And nobody figured that the companies in need of such people would rather hire experience. I mean, honestly, who could have predicted any of that?
Anyhow, this means that my sister is hooked up with a temp agency, doing whatever they can find for her, which at this time of year happens to be order fulfillment. She takes things out of bins and puts them into mailing boxes, 10 hours at a stretch. It sounds. . .exhausting. In fact, she sounded exhausted, but glad of the paycheck, which, if she can keep quota, is good for six or eight 70-hour weeks between now and The Day.
In the circular way of conversations, she asked what was I doing now? Always a dangerous question to ask a writer. I explained about the three book contract, and Splinter Universe, and Pinbeam Books, and how maybe next year I’d be looking at doing a Kickstarter campaign to fund a novel. . .The kind of stuff that’s only fascinating if you’re actually doing it. I could hear her eyes start to glaze over down the phone line, and paused, thinking I’d better ask about her guinea pig.
And into that pause she said, “But are you earning any money?”
Um. Ah. Well. . .yes.
So, I explained about the up-front money, and royalties, combined with sales of echapbooks from Amazon, BN, and Smashbooks, which pay monthly after your probation period, plus patron support of Splinter Universe, and a little about trying to have as many streams of income as humanly possible, so that if one dried up, the household wasn’t entirely beached, and how, if there was a good month or an exceptional royalty payment, you paid forward – the electric bill, the health insurance, the cellphone contract — whatever, so that in lean months you had a cushion. Basic Freelance Survival 101, really.
“And these stories – people just send you money?”
Well…yes. Sort of. It’s like royalties, or. . .loaves on the water. Not every story earns the same amount of money — there are a buncha reasons for that, including the quality of the story, and the state of the reader’s budget — we all know about budgets and cashflow, here. It’s a little hard to quantify which stories are doing “better.” For instance, on paper it looked like the first story we put up, “Kin Ties,” brought in a nice solid fourteen cents a word, but that was right when the website was getting organized, and some folks were donating to the site, and not necessarily to the story.
“Guaranteed Delivery,” the second story, earned about three cents a word — if you count story-specific donations — while “Tinsori Light,” the newest one, had so far brought in just about a nickle a word.
It’s not a science, I said. You just keep juggling and hope not to drop an egg on your face.
“And you feel better,” said my sister. “You’d rather be doing this. . .scrambling around, than having a. . .real job?”
Oh, baby.
Yes, I said. Yes. I would.
“Well…” she said doubtfully, and there was a pause.
And into that pause, I dropped a question about the guinea pig, who’s doing well, for those who are fans of the furry, though a little disappointed about the cutback in running ball time, due to the long hours my sister’s currently away from the house.
We talked a little more, then she said that she ought to get off the phone and go to bed, she had to be at work for the 4:45 a.m. meeting, and we hung up, promising not to go so long between phone calls this time.
Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.
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...which reminds me...
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Kickstarter
(Anonymous) 2011-11-17 09:18 pm (UTC)(link)Anne in Virginia
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Glad the guinea pig is doing well!
Kickstarter, Guinea Piggies
As for the Guinea Pig. Google Guinea Pig or just go to Wikipedia for a fabulous article on these cutest of critters. They are not pigs, of course, but large rodents originally from the Andes. No one is sure why they are named "Guinea".
But what I wanted to check on is that like humans guinea pigs must be given vit C in their diets by means of fresh fruits and vegetables. Look of care and feeding in the article. Most critters like dogs and cats manufacture enough vit. C in their own bodies. Enough most of the time unless they are ill. Sick respiratory dogs do well on Ester C by the way.... But us and guinea pigs need vit. C.
Unfortunately they are sometimes used in experiments in laboratories which is where the phrase comes from "being used as guinea pigs" whenever a new drug comes out on market for example. If there was a "don't like" to click on Facebook I'd click there as far as those mean experiments go. And please don't send me hate mail. the subject of using animals for experiments is a very large one and can be argued indefinitely.
And also please don't buy some of these littles "for the kids". Kids aren't great with the responsibility of looking after anyone. So unless you are willing, in the end, to take care of said small critter a stuffed animal would be better.
C.
Re: Kickstarter, Guinea Piggies
Hamsters now... But those I am not allowed here for good reasons. (Australia has had far too many 'imported animals outcompete locals' and is not in favour of any more). Oddly enough we do have guinea pigs here. Possibly because they're too stupid to survive the feral cats.
Re: Kickstarter, Guinea Piggies
When my sister moved into her present apartment, she had a cat, which was OK by the then-landlord. Apartment complex changed hands, and new rules went into force -- no cats. People who had cats could keep them, but when the cat died, they couldn't get another.
So, the cat died. Me, I'd've gotten another cat and claimed direct reincarnation. My sister? Adopted a guinea pig.
Re: Kickstarter, Guinea Piggies
Australia sure has problems with non native species. The US does too. Terrible problems with the Burmese pythons in Florida for example. Also geckos there. Various kinds of bad fish in the lakes and rivers all over the country. One of the biggest mistakes was the importation of starlings from England. Someone thought they'd be nice here or something. You see huge flocks of them here in Utah. And lots of noxious weeds that don't belong here that cause a lot of problems. And even bushes like the Tamarisk and the Russian Olive Tree....I guess the world has shrunk a lot.
I'd sure like to visit Australia someday.
C.
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At the end of the day, this poor guy walked in to my interview room, and said, "I don't think you'll hire me." I kind of shook my head, and looked at his resume. No degree, which was an automatic no hire. BUT I read the rest of it. He'd been working as an independent consultant for something like 10 years. He had several long-term contracts in hand, and recommendations from his satisfied customers.
At which point, I laid down his resume, looked at him, and said, "What are you doing here? I can't offer you a salary to match what you're making." He laughed, and said, "Well, to tell you the truth, I'm getting married." I said, "Congratulations. But..." He shrugged, and said, "My fiancee wants me to get a real job. She doesn't think what I've been doing is steady enough." I looked at his resume again, then said, "Wait here."
I walked next door where my boss was waiting, having finished his interviews, and said, "We want to hire this guy. He doesn't fit any of the HR requirements, but we want him." He listened to me as I explained, and we ended up dragging the head of HR in to talk with the young man -- and we hired him, even if he was way outside our specs. He did a great job, too!
I wonder if he ever explained to his new wife how much income he lost by joining the ranks of the "regular employees?"
Income versus Income
(Anonymous) 2011-11-19 02:36 am (UTC)(link)And being congratulated by Anne McCaffrey and others in the high echelons of sci-fi and fantasy writing is nothing to sneeze at, either!
Joan C
Re: Income versus Income
She is in no way suited to sitting in front of a computer screen all day long, making up amusing lies. On the other hand, I, as was just recently proved conclusively, am no longer suited to secretarial work.
Neither one of us, I expect, is well-suited to taking things out of bins and putting them into mailing boxes for hours at a stretch. On the other hand, the guinea pig -- and the cats -- have to eat.
No Cats!
My neighbor had a potential problem with having "too many cats". I'm talking about a big time number of cats. I said you do not have too many. I asked her about the color of her cats. OK, I said: you have one orange cat, one gray cat, one tabby cat, one white cat and one black cat. That's not too many is it? Luckily she lives on quite a big property. She has catteries but who is going to count the number of what colored cats in the catteries from the road anyway. So far no problem.
Some friends and I actually used this method in Paris to good effect. We never walked the two white dogs together, the two black dogs together or the two brown dogs together. Worked like a charm.
C.
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It haunts me twice because my son, who has not yet gotten his college degree, is trying to get a job, and I fear he too may end up stuffing boxes - or getting a night job unloading cartons onto shelves.