For those of you unfamiliar with the Insecure Writer’s Support Group… A couple of hundred writers from around the blogosphere have signed up to this bloghop, which is hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Then, on the first Wednesday of every month, we share our insecurities and/or encouragements.
This month, I’m co-hosting the IWSG Bloghop along with LK Hill, Juneta Key, Christy, and Joylene Butler.
Before I get into my post, though, I just have two more spots of admin to get through.
First, I’m also visiting Ronel Janesen van Vuuren today, sharing some of my thoughts on Patreon.
Then, if you’d rather read this exact same post on Blogger, please click here.
Right. Now that’s done, let’s get into it, shall we?
As you may or may not know, I’ve recently started taking this being-a-writer thing seriously. Like… really really seriously.
Like… I’m-being-a-writer-for-90%-of-my-time-and-using-my-writing-skills-to-earn-99%-of-my-income seriously.
And how’s it going?
Surprisingly well, money wise. I basically started from scratch in September. And in January, I’ve made my country’s minimum wage for the first time.
Which is AMAZE-BALLS. You guys can’t imagine how happy I am with that.
Except.
Most of that money’s coming from me freelancing as an editor/formatter/cover designer (which I totally see as writing skills, because all of the above are needed for me to make it as a writer.)
Not so much from selling books.
But that’s okay, because I always knew I should start of making money as I can and spending money on marketing etc for my books in order to grow my readership.
Here’s the thing, though… Growing my readership will actually happen when I have my next book out. Which I can’t get to when my freelance list fills up out of nowhere.
And I can’t market my old books until I have them updated. Which some of you might now be chortling about, because I’ve been saying I’ll update the books since May last year. And the cause of the delay?
Newsletters. Website. I have no money to pay someone to design either, and because people are hiring me for a ton of stuff they don’t have time for, I don’t have the time to do either of those two myself.
And I can’t link to them unless I have them set up. So I can’t update my books to include the links.
See? One giant bowl of I-really-have-no-time spaghetti.
So now, I’m trying to make writing time, which is making me feel bad, because the whole reason why I decided to go full-time was that I WANTED TO HAVE TIME TO WRITE!
*gasp gasp gasp*
How do you deal with everything trying to steal your writing time? Any advice for me?
The Five Year Project 
One bite at a time, Misha. I can’t remember the entire joke – I think it was “how do you eat an elephant?” – but I do remember that it was something huge that had to be eaten and the answer was: one bite at a time. I’ll also add: focus on what you’re busy with instead of all you have to do.
As for the things trying to steal your writing time: JK Rowling likes to say that you have to be ruthless about guarding your writing days. Seeing as she created Hogwarts, the castle we all want to live in, and the world surrounding it, I’d listen to her 😉
JK Rowling is absolutely right. And I am going to start being ruthless about writing time.
Good luck!
Thanks! ^_^
Wondering why you have two blogs exactly the same? Dropping the Blogger one could save you time? Website-wize, there a thousands of free templates which work really well with WordPress blogs, and some of the hosting companies set those up for you when you sign up for their service – Two birds… ?
I’m studying for my Masters in Creative Writing, which I’m loving. So, I’ve stopped my freelance work and books sales have vanished as I’ve not released anything new for ages, or marketed them. *Shrug. I have around forty years of working left in me – there’s time 🙂
Great to hear your freelancers work is earning you a full time wage! I had some great months with ghostwriting, but then there were quieter months – or I just wanted a rest!
I guess the main thing with WordPress is that it keeps making me want to pay for everything I usually use on blogger for free. (Such as fully customizing my look etc.)
And it’s not really taking me much longer time-wise. I just copy/paste the HTML code from one to the other.
At the moment, I’m still getting lulls in my freelance times, so that gives me a chance to rest. Like for the past two days. I guess it helps that I have a lower full-time wage than people in first world countries. I get paid in USD, but get to spend in Rands, so I don’t need as many jobs to make ends meet.
Dude. That is one vicious cycle. I hope it works out and your books start selling!
Thanks! ^_^
Congrats on making the minimum wage for the first time!
We South Africans know all about the joys of converting from USD to ZAR, don’t we? *wink*
Oh yes we do. 😀
That is so cool and Congrats. Hugs
Happy IWSG Belated Day!
Juneta @ Writer’s Gambit
I’d say you have way better problems now than when you were first deciding to go for it full time. Yes, you have a time crunch, but that is an improvement on stressing about money for day to day needs. The only advice I can give is to set aside one hour a day (at least) to write for sure. Then, just use the lulls in freelance jobs to work on your own marketing/design/etc. and that way you won’t feel bad when you have a lull!