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Posted by Justine at 11:24, March 10th, 2008 under Publishing business, Young Adult literature |
John Scalzi has some
excellent advice for writers who are trying to make money out of said occupation. Go forth, read, take notes.
While I strongly agree with most of his advice, I have issues with two of his points:
3. Marry (or otherwise shack up with) someone sensible with money, who has a real job.
This is something that worked really well for John. I've met his wife, Krissy, and a more formidable, fun, amazing person I have yet to meet. And she knows from money. Seriously smart about it. I wish I had married Krissy.
But, really, this is Scalzi confusing his own excellent good luck with general advice for everyone. Not everyone's going to meet a Krissy. I ...
Posted by Justine at 14:03, February 11th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 9:55, November 13th, 2007 under Basketball, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, New York City/USA, Praising, Publishing business, Ranting, Sport, State of the World |
Several people have been bewildered by
my enjoyment of
this article about the Frankfurt Book Fair. Don't you get depressed by how it's not about the authors? they ask. How it's about books as product? How there are so many, many, many books?
Nope.
Books are products.
That's not all they are, but it's a pretty bloody important aspect, especially for those of us who are trying to make a living writing (or editing or selling) them.
Publishing is an industry. Part of what it's about---and has always been about---is making money. For most of its history most of that money has been made by people other than writers. ((Most editors and publicists and sales reps and booksellers don't make ...
Posted by Justine at 0:09, October 18th, 2007 under Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 9:34, October 15th, 2007 under Publishing business |
Posted by Justine at 13:53, August 9th, 2007 under Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 14:36, August 6th, 2007 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Publishing business, Ranting, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 18:14, June 4th, 2007 under Publishing business, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 13:05, April 1st, 2007 under Freelance Anniversary, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy, Sydney/Australia, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 9:56, March 6th, 2007 under Best of Blog, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, New York City/USA, Publishing business, State of the World, Writing life |
Scott just hit his
tenth anniversary as a freelance writer. Congratulations, Mr Hardest-Working-Writer-I-Know.
He shares some cool statistics. Here's two:
in that time he's published well over one million words (gulp!),
and it took him eight years---that's right---eight years (!) before he was earning enough from writing under his own name to support himself.
Eight years is a loooong time and yet most writers don't ever earn enough to (comfortably) quit their day job. Scott has done very good indeed. I'm so proud.
Posted by Justine at 20:36, June 4th, 2006 under Praising, Publishing business, Scott's books, Writing life |
Samuel R. Delany's book
About Writing will not get out of my brain. I keep thinking about his concept of the usefulness, no, the essentialness of doubt (good! I got plenty of that), about how slavishly following the rules and working hard leads to aesthetic banality (the rules of good writing, not the rules of how-to-get-an-agent/editor---
you have to follow those). And about being a hack.
Delany's book made me feel like one (in a good way). His description of his own writing process, of how to write the absolute best you can, is a recipe for books that go through many, many drafts and take a long, long time to write, books that delve down into every doubt or ...
Posted by Justine at 9:44, February 1st, 2006 under Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, Daughters of Earth, Magic or Madness trilogy, Reading, Writing life, Writing process |
