Comments on: Money writing advice

By: ben

ben — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:46:36 +0000

Ms. Larbalestier..I just found your blog and had to share my wry smile…I’m here in my banking office, pretending to be capitalistic, while gazing fondly at the corner of my desk where my copy of “Magic or Madness”, along with various good company (Susan Cooper, Philip Pullman, etc.) stands ready to offer escape from corporate drudgery. Without my surreptious dips into these pages throughout the day, I’d definitely go bonkers (not that a few more bonkers bankers in the world wouldn’t be interesting.) So, the money may be more readily available in finance than in writing, but you’re the much-admired, story-spinning saviour of bored corporate prisoners, as well as fresh-faced youngsters around the world! As long as aspiring writers can afford to eat and sleep in peace, I hope the chance at that admittedly quiet kind of honor and glory, along with the joy of seeing one’s imagination take tangible form, is far more enticing than what I can assure you is the empty allure of material rewards. Thanks for your books! cheers, Ben

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:23:11 +0000

Diana – I’m sure they meant the more ‘lemur Diana’ by which I suspect they meant wide-eyed and nocturnal.

By: Chris Howard

Chris Howard — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:16:15 +0000

I just signed my first book contract. I met the editor in New York in May right after the offer, and her first piece of advice: Don’t quit your day job. The advance isn’t high, and I wasn’t expecting a lot. I just want to write.

By: Justine

Justine — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 18:53:53 +0000

Corey: Yup. If writing is making him bleed then he’s clearly doing it wrong.

By: Corey

Corey — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 18:24:38 +0000

“Write until your words bleed…” That ‘metaphor’ invokes, to me, images of desperation, not determination. I believe success in writing is binary: If you can go in to any retail bookstore and see your name on a shelf, you’re there; I see many of your guys’ names every such journey! The monetary contributions received is more of a welcome side-effect than a goal to me. I suppose that’s because I approach writing as an idealist and not a profession =) I could crochet some words for Victoria to respond with, but I’m sure she’ll concoct some from a higher path than I!

By: Lauren

Lauren — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:19:49 +0000

That guy is definitely a wanker. In defense of delusion, however, I have to say that I probably never would have abandoned my first career to pursue fiction writing if I’d known just how hard it is to earn a living at it. I consider myself very lucky to be self-supporting rather than a cautionary tale.

By: Coreyjf

Coreyjf — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:23:10 +0000

He probably asked the question knowing full well what her answer would be. Maybe he was one of the poser agents with an axe to grind. Maybe he is just a jacka$$. But he either asked the question with a response at hand or is completely deluded and desperately looking for validation. Either way, I hope she didn’t waste too much energy on him. I would seriously wonder about the motivations of anyone who advised a writer with no track record to quit his day job.

By: Diana

Diana — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 13:31:16 +0000

The one time I dared to talk about the reality of publishing and money and making a living on my blog, I was called “pretentious” six ways from Sunday and told that they preferred “the more demure Diana.” Now, I ask you, when have I ever been demure?

People prefer the fantasy and if you dare disabuse them of it, you will be punished.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 06:13:18 +0000

people like that guy annoy me. but they seem to be popping up all over the place.

if only all lawyers did make good money.

i’d always wondered what those “nice” and “good” things meant. i was like, “what are they going to do, say that it was a bad deal?” heh.

money money money money. bleh.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:48:39 +0000

The only author that I’ve known about to make bank (my way of saying “a lot of money”…ha) as a first timer is Stephenie Meyer. I’m pretty sure that Little, Brown and Co. gave her a $750,000 three-book deal. Those are some amazing figures, but I know that success is not often measured in dollars, and that’s not how it should be measured. I’ve lived all of my life in a household where money is tighter than tight, but I wouldn’t consider my life a failure because we don’t have money to toss around. I’m thankful for that perspective and I don’t plan on embracing the world as a place to “get rich”. I’m becoming a teacher for crying out loud and I’ve been told by many that I won’t make much. It would be nice to make a good amount of money, but I will never base my view of success on that. To me, success would be being able to get my book(s)? out there for people to read and enjoy. Teaching students and helping them learn more about reading and writing…helping them to enjoy those things…that would be success for me.

I love your books, Justine! And I think that makes you super successful.

By: Justine

Justine — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:00:38 +0000

Cat: Ta. You are too kind.

Tim: Excellent. Now all I have to do is learn how to knit. Congrats on the littlie youse are awaiting.

By: Penni

Penni — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 23:23:51 +0000

what a little oik.

By: Tim Pratt

Tim Pratt — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:56:39 +0000

Well, we do have a baby on the way, so booties could be nice…

I’d like to have a sustainable career as a fiction writer, too, of course, and I’m doing my best to make that happen — it’s just my policy to always expect the worst. My wife Heather is the optimist. We balance out!

By: Cat Sparks

Cat Sparks — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:55:58 +0000

excellent post, Justine. Bravo!

By: Justine

Justine — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 20:29:56 +0000

Jennifer: Hah! I totally feel like I made Coningsby Dawson and Warwick Deeping up. I am so stealing those names.

Tim: I’m not sure I’d go that far. But then I am foolishly trying to make a living writing fiction. I have backup plans though for when the books stop selling and the advances dwindle to nothing. Wanna buy some lovely knitted booties?

By: Tim Pratt

Tim Pratt — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 20:15:48 +0000

Well said. I look at writing money as akin to strange weather — double rainbows, hailstorms in July, showers of frogs. I’ve been fortunate — my first novel paid for my wedding and my honeymoon. The next four books are in the process of paying off my credit card debt and buying me a new (well, used, but new to me) car, and paying for the lost income from my wife’s upcoming maternity leave. It’s also buying the occasional sushi dinner. But I have no expectations that I’ll ever make another penny from fiction writing. I *hope* I will, but the world doesn’t certainly owe me a living just because I like to make stuff up and write it down.

By: jennifer, aka literaticat

jennifer, aka literaticat — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:51:16 +0000

what an asshat.

anyhow, speak for yourself! my thesis: “high wycombe writ large: the incendiary prose of conignsby dawson”

… for some reason the university still hasn’t sent my diploma.

(ps: “warwick deeping” sounds like the lead in a blue movie.)