A good many years ago, I was on a panel about the business side of writing. About half the panel were full-time writers; the other half still had day jobs. During the question-and-answer session, someone directed a question at James P. Hogan, one of the other full-timers on the panel:, something along the lines of “Tell us about how much difference it makes to your writing to not have a day job. How much more productive are you?”
Mr. Hogan snorted and replied, “I still have a day job. It’s called ‘looking after my writing career.'”
Every time I have a new book issued, I remember that panel, and how all the other full-time writers nodded in agreement, while a good three-quarters of the audience looked bewildered. Because it’s one of the things they rarely tell you when you’re thinking about being a writer: that writing is a business, and if you want to be successful at it, you have a lot of non-writing things to do in addition to the writing part. Those things include everything from record-keeping for tax purposes to doing publicity stuff (which can eat your entire life, if you let it), and none of them are actually writing, and all of them take time that you could be using for writing or cleaning up after the cats or various other useful and necessary things. Not that some of them aren’t fun (I enjoy getting out and talking to readers, and I know a lot of other writers do, too), but they’re still not writing fun.
This week, for instance, I had a lovely time down at my alma mater, Carleton College, being interviewed by a series of determined young women who are interested in writing as a career, and wanted to know everything from proper submission etiquette (there are explanatory articles in the front of Fiction Writer’s Market and Literary Marketplace and most of the other, similar guides) to what sorts of classes they should take (short answer: whatever is interesting. Writers are intellectual packrats, and it’s all material eventually). It was a pleasant afternoon and evening, and very worthwhile…but it wasn’t writing.
Then I discovered that the email address on my website wasn’t working, and neither were the blog comments or RSS feed. After about a day of emails and phone calls to tech support, I got the email address working again, but as of this writing, the comments and RSS are still out. My web-blog guru is working on it. More necessary and worthwhile stuff, but also Not Writing.
And today…I just got back from shipping out some copies of the new book to reviewers (way late to be doing this, but maybe there’ll be a second wave), signing stock at Uncle Hugo’s SF Bookstore, and assorted other book-related errands (OK, OK, one of them was buying cat food. But that’s book-related…have you ever tried to write with a hungry cat wailing and gnawing at your ankles?), and I have a stack of book plates to sign and send back to my publisher. I’m in the middle of an exchange of emails with my agent and editor about various minor difficulties with the current release and what to do about them. That will probably take a couple of hours to sort out, off and on. Then I have to start packing for my trip to Chicago, where I’m doing school visits and a reading/autographing at Anderson Books (the one in Downers Grove-see “News” on the web page for more info) next Wednesday. Also good and necessary stuff that will (we all hope) help the sales of Thirteenth Child; but again, Not Writing.
Other Not Writing things that are still on the to-do list: reprinting business cards; designing and printing book plates; updating the tax and royalty database; a three-foot stack of research reading; more autographings, conventions, and readings. And of course blogging and web site maintenance and answering fan mail and filing.
What it all boils down to is this: Back when I worked in Corporate America, I did most of my writing on my lunch hour. I wrote the better part of five books that way. The problem with being a full-time writer is that I don’t have a lunch hour or a company cafeteria any more.
Writing still gets done (I hasten to add, before the angry mob starts forming). It just takes a lot more stubbornness than the phrase “full-time-writer” leads most people to believe.
