I don’t often like to talk about money. I’m from an upstate New York yankee-type culture where discussing how much money one makes is like tossing a pair of underwear up in a tree and starting a discussion with your neighbors of who it might belong to. (Everyone thinks you’re a weirdo.) Writer culture, too, treats money as a hands-off topic, and in a way, I think it should remain…
This week, we’re tackling the financial realities of being a writer. As I thought about what to say, Karen’s post from January kept popping into my head. She wrote it during our “biggest challenge of being a writer” week, but it could be cut-and-pasted right here. I recommend you read that piece first. It’ll tell you that it’s almost impossible to make a living as a writer. That’s true for almost…
This week, we’re talking about the money, cheddar, clams, dough, benjamins side of the biz. It’s a topic that can challenging because the cash an author makes up front or from sales varies so much from writer to writer. Trust me, I spent a lot of time Googling to come to this conclusion. I’ve found, however, that the money side of the things can be universally stressful for new writers. I’ll certainly raise my hand for that…
There’s only one difference between me and Anne, Amy’s fictional author in her hilarious post yesterday: unlike Anne, I know exactly where every cent of my advance went. My advance was split into three payments – the first third upon signature of the book contract, the second third upon delivery of the final manuscript, and the last third upon publication. Each time my agent sent me a check, I…
This week the Debs are talking about the business of writing and earning money through writing. My book, FEAST OF SORROW, launched this last Tuesday. I’m over the moon about it, as you can imagine. NPR Food interviewed me for their blog The Salt this last week and that sent books flying off the shelves and my Amazon ranking upward, breaking into the bestsellers for Italian historical fiction and biographical historical…
This week’s post is all about ways to stay the course and get the words on the page. And reading all the tips from the other lovely Debs, I expected that light bulb moment. That “oh yes, here’s how I get through” genius. And then I realized something. I truly am a Master Procrastinator. Because while I’ve learned a few tricks here and there, I still have long stretches of…
I have a confession. I have about 45 books stacked on the table near my bath tub. And forty or fifty more under the sink. I have hundreds on shelves, stacked in book cases, lurking in boxes waiting for me to put up more shelving. I have cookbooks in the kitchen, classics in my living room, chick lit in my beach bag and on my bedside table. Because I am…
Becoming a bartender in a striped-shirt establishment over fifteen years ago was an accomplishment. It meant hard work, late nights, studying drink recipes until dawn, and surviving the not-so-subtle hostility of fellow bartenders whose friend didn’t get the coveted spot or who didn’t feel I’d deserved it, and waiters who’d wanted the position for themselves. I’d worked hard to get there, though it was a means to an end for…
You know you’re a workaholic when “lunch” sounds like an unnecessary indulgence. Lunch? You mean that food I inhale, some of which inevitably ends up corroding my keyboard keys because it’s being consumed when I’m catching up on emails or finishing a scene? (Right now? Pot stickers from Whole Foods and so far, so good on the keys.) I remember the days I worked in an office, when “I’m going…
I have a confession to make: I am a cheapskate. I shop in thrift stores. Our family car has 210,000 miles. When something breaks I fix it (or learn to live without it) rather than running out and buying a new one. If there is something I need, it goes on a list and I try to wait a least a month before buying it, and usually, in that time…
