Write when you get work

[rolanni]

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.

Comments

Kickstarter, Guinea Piggies

[claire774.livejournal.com]

The technical parts of being a writer. Very interesting. Being of limited bucks myself I promise to buy every single book you publish and have including the Maine Novels from Lulu.

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

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

I only had guinea pigs once. I found them lacking in personality. I had a fish with more personality than the guinea pigs (ate, squeaked, pooped.. that was about it).

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

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I wasn't much impressed with my guinea pig, either. Much preferred the rat, who was a real schmott guy.

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

[claire774.livejournal.com]

So you are in Australia! Wow...that's far away. I've never had any guinea pigs myself. I know a gal who is an employee at the same animal organization that I am who just loves them. She's kept a lot in the past. I think people can get attached to them or any critter if that's your thing. I am a dog person myself as you can probably tell.

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.