User:	halseanderson
	Date:	2008-07-19 07:17
	Subject:	More Financial Truth and WFMAD Day 19
	Security:	Public

Yesterday post about the financial realities of writing provoked a lot of comment. Has SCBWI ever done a workshop about this? It's the kind of practical nuts-and-bolts stuff people should know, IMHO.

In response to the post, a Constant Reader on MySpace posed this question: When you go to conferences- like the ALA and such- do you pay your own way and use that as business expenses come tax-time or does your publisher/etc ever pay for it (like if you were the one that won the Newbery that year)? Do groups ever pay you to come, like if you are speaking at an event?"

These days (I've been writing for 16 years and have published 6 picture books, 6 novels, and a 12-book series) the publishers pay my way to big conferences such as American Library Association, International Reading Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English. But not every year. They pick and choose from their authors depended on if that person has a new book out, and the distance (= cost!) of getting said author to the event.

We are not paid for our time or for presenting at these big events. On my recent ALA trip, I was gone from home for five days. Two of those days were so jam-packed with book-and-librarian stuff I was only able to sneak in an hour of work. The other days I was able to work on the new book a fair amount. (That's why I didn't go play at Disneyland.) I have gotten much better at working on planes and in airports, too.

If you like speaking in public and are good at it, you can ask to present at state and regional conferences of librarians and teachers, and, of course, you can visit schools. If you are just starting out, you'll probably have to pay your own expenses, and they won't pay you a speaking fee. If you're a good speaker and your reputation grows, you'll gradually be offered an honorarium, and sometimes they'll pay your expenses. Legitimate business expenses associated with this kind of travel are tax-deductible, but please, please consult with a tax professional about this.

In addition to conferences, I used to spend 60 - 100 days a year visiting schools. That's how I paid my bills. It was fun and I loved it, but it wicked ate into writing time. (I'm on a hiatus from school visits right now - I promised my publishers I'd focus on writing for a while.) I always arranged my own travel, but a lot of authors rely on people like Catherine Balkin to set up their appearances and coordinate travel details.

What other facts of the writing life do you want to know?

WFMAD Day 19!

Today's goal: Write for 15 minutes. Try to avoid melting.

Today's mindset: humid

Today's prompt: If you're going to do this prompt, don't scroll down to Part Two until you've completed Part One.

1. Write a list of five objects between the size of a hardback book and a toaster oven. Describe each item in glorious, precise detail.



scroll down for Part Two...




keep scrolling....






almost there.....







2. Imagine you're on a vacation on a remote island; wo weeks and no electricity. You do have ample food and clean water, and a safe shelter, and you are fairly comfortable, but there are no stores around. You open your suitcase and instead of the clothes you packed, you find your 5 objects sitting there.

Write about what you're going to do with them.


Scribblescribble...

	User:	handworn
	Date:	2008-07-18 19:56
	Subject:	This guy deserves to win.
	Security:	Public

Sean Tevis, an Information Architect (whatever that is) from Kansas, is running for State Representative. His webpage text begins with the title,

Running for Office: It's Like A Flamewar with a Forum Troll, but with an Eventual Winner

admnaismith

	User:	jbknowles
	Date:	2008-07-18 14:33
	Subject:	Writing camp and the road we travel
	Security:	Public

Yesterday I was lucky enough to visit Rick and cfaughnan's Writing Camp.

Writing Camp is one of the coolest things ever invented.

We talked about writing what you know, and what that does and doesn't mean. I was fascinated by what the writers thought when they heard that advice. I hope I helped change their minds. You can write about anything! But you can also use a lot of what you know to make it sing.

I also read the first chapter of my WIP, which was pretty scary, I must say. But they laughed at the right places and that made me feel good. During the work time, I got to wander around and talk with the writers about what they were working on, and also offer some advice for things they were stuck on.

Today, I got some disappointing news. I admit, I cried a little (but only for like, a minute, reallY!). But it's all just part of the road we writers travel. Sometimes the scenery is breathtaking and you can hardly believe how lucky you are, and sometimes you get stuck in traffic with no air conditioner on a 90º day. And then you get a flat tire. But someone is always there to help (thanks Barry et al!). And eventually, the road opens up again, fresh air blows in the windows, and there are more gifts to be found. Am I right?

I hope so.

And I hope everyone has a great weekend.

xo

~*~*~*~*~*~

halseanderson Daily 15 Keeping Myself Honest Check-In:
Yesterday: 67 words [I know. So sad,]
Today: 256 words [I know. Not much better.]

	User:	windowlight
	Date:	2008-07-18 12:19
	Subject:	sweet things
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	silly

I've been staying up way late reading I Love You, Beth Cooper.  Larry Doyle is a freaking genius.  This book is so hilarious and smart on every single page and his observations of universal experiences are perfect.  Like this one, during graduation when everyone is packed into a gym with no air and someone tries to open the back doors:  "Three thousand heads turned simultaneously, expecting the doors to fly open with minty gusts of chilled wind, maybe even light flurries."  This story opens with the valedictorian announcing his love for the head cheerleader in his speech.  How fun is that?  And why is this book classified as adult fiction instead of YA?

Speaking of YA, John Green explained why the paperback edition of An Abundance of Katherines will be available for the low low price of $3.99.  Go on with your fine self, master nerd fighter.

As an even more low-budge way to spread the love, why not let that special someone know just how you feel by making your own virtual candy heart?  They're good all year, you know.  Of course the ultimate candy destination is Dylan's Candy Bar, where my friend Joe and I went after our frozen hot chocolates at Serendipity.  Dylan's has miles of every kind of candy in existence, including random old-school finds like Sky Bars and Moon Pies:



Even their stairs like candy:



Joe located the ultimate dentist's fantasy.  It's this candy called Grillz, where you actually deposit your teeth and gums directly into this mold of sugar:



On that disturbing note, here's the daily Deep Thought by Jack Handey to chew on.

	User:	alg
	Date:	2008-07-18 10:34
	Subject:
	Security:	Public
	Music:	tiffany - spanish eyes

I am a little appalled by you guys. Only a few people told me they'd be downloading that Doctor Who documentary, but more than thirty people actually downloaded it. (What, you think I can't check a stats page?) So I've taken the documentary down. See if i ever do anything for you guys again!

While on the subject of things *I* am not doing: Jozelle Dyer is running some kind of raffle for free books. All you have to do is answer a couple of questions, and she enters you into the drawing.

Tonight is a big night! My super secret project wraps up, Psych comes back for its third season, and I am going to see 80s mall-pop queen Tiffany at a nightclub in St. Charles. There is a dress code. I have never attended a show with a dress code before!

Last night was a big night, too: I finished the Rose-warmers!

	User:	slayground
	Date:	2008-07-18 07:44
	Subject:	Poetry Friday: Success is Counted Sweetest by Emily Dickinson
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	awake
	Music:	So Beautiful by David Poe

Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.

- by Emily Dickinson

View all posts tagged as Poetry Friday at Bildungsroman.

Consult the Poetry Friday roundup schedule at Big A little a.

Learn more about Poetry Friday.

	User:	melissawyatt
	Date:	2008-07-18 09:37
	Subject:	Burning Question
	Security:	Public

Is it possible to write with a brand new puppy in the house? Because I think I need a puppy and I think I need one like...now. But I am imagining myself mooning over puppy all day when I am not hauling puppy's furry little butt outside for various purposes, with little writing getting done. Anyone with direct experience who can advise?

	User:	jeannineatkins
	Date:	2008-07-18 08:45
	Subject:	Writing as Looking Back
	Security:	Public

I enjoyed a celebratory day with three old friends – driving up a winding drive to a Berkshire cottage/mansion called Blantyre for lunch in the garden by an ivy-covered wall. I enjoyed the salad I didn’t have to chop myself, and dessert, involving blueberries and whipped cream, was a work of art. Afterwards we walked the elegant grounds, finding two swings on a huge maple tree. Here I am with Sue, who helped me survive high school and life since.



It was all lovely, but for a writer, the day after may be as precious as the day. I’ve been recording some of what we said in my journal and writing down more ancient memories, too. Details I first missed emerge as I try to make a new sense of our lives.

I love busy afternoons with friends and family, but it’s often the common moments that spin around, and like a fairy tale beg us to circle back and take another longer look. Sometimes staring at a blank screen is staring at a blank screen, and it’s time to move on. But sometimes a small voice whispers: wait. Slowly, a blank wall starts to look like a window and I remember that we can’t race to meaning. You have to sneak up on it, small step by small light step. Working with time and silence as much as words, themes sneak up, rising in smoky, desultory, unpredictable ways.

That swing that made me lift my heels is probably empty now, maybe blowing slightly in a breeze. But it’s there for someone who walks by. Anyone can play.

	User:	halseanderson
	Date:	2008-07-18 06:54
	Subject:	Cold Hard Facts About the Writing Life & WFMAD Day 18
	Security:	Public

This question came into my Facebook page earlier in the week: I am sure you are asked this question constantly, but do you have any advice for aspiring authors? i am so passionate about writing, i read often, and i hope to publish a novel one day and share my writing with others. it's funny, i feel like saying i write constantly, because i always have ideas and stories in my head, but life is so busy that i seldom find time to write it all down! any suggestions would be very much appreciated! =]

Writers get this question a lot. It is second only to "Where do you get your ideas?"

I'm going to start my answer by posing a question: how far do you want to go with your writing?

It's OK to recognize that you enjoy writing, that it's important to you, and that you want to get better, but also knowing, deep down, that you'll probably never make a living at it. But if you want to make your writing your career, if you expect it to pay your bills....

Warning: cold financial realities ahead...

....There is no nice way to say this. It is almost impossible to make a living as a writer.

Please don't throw that tomato at me. Do not harm the messenger. I'm just saying what's true.

I think the average advance for a novel might be up to $20,000 these days. (That is an optimistic number.) Your agent gets $3,000, and then you have to throw at least 30% of what's left at the federal government for both halves of your Social Security and your income taxes, more if your spouse's income or your other job boosts your tax bracket.

Let's say it took you a year to write that novel. That means your take-home pay is around $12,5000.... for a year's worth of work. And remember: it's an advance against your royalties. Your book has to sell around 10,000 copies to pay your publisher back. (Last number I heard was that the average middle grade or YA novel in America sells 5000 copies a year. If I have that number wrong, someone please correct me.)

Using that average, it will take two years to earn out the advance. If the publisher hasn't taken the book out of print, you'll start to see royalties in Year 3. (This assumes a 10% royalty, which not every one gets. If your book mostly sells in chain stores, it will probably be subject to the deep-discount clause in your contract and you see a considerably smaller royalty.)

Of course you're not just sitting at home, waiting for the mail to arrive with your check. You're hard at work on the next novel. Excellent! That's the approach that works. If you can write a solid novel every one to two years, if you can live frugally, if you can balance family and life and publicity efforts with writing, after about third or fourth novel (so Year 6-8 of this effort), you should be able to quit your day job and make a living from your writing.

There is no glamor in the writing life, no fame in the mode of Hollywood. It's a life of quiet dedication. It's a life of writing every single day, like we're doing here this month. You don't have to become a monk, or live in a cave (though that helps sometimes). But you're probably going to have to prioritize how you spend your time in order to make a good chunk of writing time available daily.

It's almost impossible to make a living as a singer, too, and a dancer, and an artist, and a film maker. The course of a creative life is littered with lots of crappy temp jobs. It's nice to get paid for living your dream, but the truth is, the real benefit of an artistic life comes in the joy and excitement of the work itself, the moments that no one else can experience; when you are in the story and you are surrounded by magic.

So it's OK to decide to have a paying job (with health insurance!) and to write on the side. In fact, many successful writers do this. They are smarter than me (and they have affordable heath insurance!) and I think about joining their ranks about once a week.

If you're still with me, and you didn't throw a tomato at the computer, here's my advice:

1. Learn how to live inexpensively.
2. Focus on the quality of your writing, not the publication process.
3. Turn off the television and step away from the Internet. You'll be shocked at how much free time you have to write if you cut back on those activites.
4. Surround yourself with all kinds of art and people who enjoy it as much as you do.
5. Make time to write every single day, if only for fifteen minutes.

Any thoughts about this? Am I being overly harsh? Am I being too optimistic? What is your experience with trying to make the writing dream your reality?

Today's goal: Write for 15 minutes.

Today's mindset: silly-creative

Today's prompt: Today's prompt is a riff on the Poetry Friday that so many folks enjoy. Start with an idea. I'll give you a few to choose from in case you're feeling stuck:
1. the love of your life
2. the battle over the whether the toilet seat should be left up or down
3. one hundred things you can put on a peanut butter sandwich
4. the presidential election
5. fish

Now take your idea and shape it into a song. Feel free to borrow a tune (I cannot teach you how to write music) and turn your lyrics into something fun and loud. The style choice is yours; opera, country, scat, Broadway musical, blues, you-name-it. Write and sing!

Scribblescribble...

	User:	quietspaces
	Date:	2008-07-17 22:44
	Subject:	Flash Slide Shows
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	peaceful

July Skies Flash Slide Show

After the Rain

	User:	octette
	Date:	2008-07-17 21:32
	Subject:	house 4x16
	Security:	Public
	Music:	Panic! At The Disco - Nails For Breakfast, Tacks For Snacks

( house 4x16 )

	User:	quietspaces
	Date:	2008-07-17 20:21
	Subject:	A budding friendship
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	happy

Samantha and Cajun.

Sam gained nearly 3 pounds since her last vet appointment, a little over two weeks ago. Got her rabies shot and a tag to put on her harness.

	User:	octette
	Date:	2008-07-17 20:20
	Subject:	house 4x15
	Security:	Public
	Music:	Panic! At The Disco - Nails For Breakfast, Tacks For Snacks

( house 4x15 )

	User:	thisisnotanlj
	Date:	2008-07-17 15:44
	Subject:	Robots and Monsters
	Security:	Public

Robots. Also, monsters.

Joe Alterio’s genius project: robots and/or monsters, designed based on three words. Here is Kingbot, aka typing, music, defenestration:

Nigel-Bramsford-2.0, aka outgoing, Victorian, bicycle:

Tubble — hedgehog, rumbly, tricky:

You owe it to yourself to see the whole set.

Originally published at sararyan.com. You can comment here or there.

	User:	jeannineatkins
	Date:	2008-07-17 12:08
	Subject:	More small steps back to routine
	Security:	Public

After a bit of bereft mom voodoo –tossing some of the nearly empty jars and bottles left in the bathroom, setting aside others for her return, swiping a few (peppermint skin lotion, yes!) -- I’m getting into a July-in-Massachusetts routine. Starting with blueberries and cereal on the porch, walking with Mary and the dogs (but did we really have to do four loops?) seeing orange day lilies and Queen Anne’s lace while driving. And under the enormous shadow of a tree, a small girl raises her hands and skips, despite the noon heat, so her pink skirt flaps. Beside her, a mom lugs groceries.

I’m glad to get back to filling a decent part of the day with writing, while I work my way through a pitcher of iced tea. And get a phone call from my girl who needs a dress for an interview at Bloomingdales. She tells me she’d probably be in the lingerie department. Am I a bad mom that this picture of her with a measuring tape draped around her neck, sizing up chests, made me laugh?

	User:	windowlight
	Date:	2008-07-17 10:34
	Subject:	summer in the city
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	lazy

Now that my revision of book three is done, I can focus on some sweet summer stuff.

Last night we saw Ricky Gervais doing stand-up.  As a hardcore Office fan, I was stoked.  Ricky is funny.  IMHO, his funniest joke was about Humpty Dumpty.  His point was that if an egg breaks, the last things you want to send over to fix it are horses.  Can you imagine a more destructive element to an egg than a hoof?  Not so much.

Cherries are so delicious.  And they're only in season for about three seconds, so you have to enjoy them while they're awesome.  This is how I justified spending $12.64 on a bag of cherries at Whole Foods.  No, the bag was not big.  Yes, they were on sale.  Cherries are worth it.  I will remember how incredible they tasted when I'm slogging through my fruit-starved winter.  At least, I will try to.

Manhattanhenge was freaking righteous!  I'm still getting used to my Nikon Coolpix, so I forgot that it has a special sunset mode when I was taking these photos.  But I think you can get the general idea.  There's nothing like the thrill of standing in the middle of the street, being a total dork taking pictures.  These were taken on July 11 from 8:16 p.m. to 8:25 p.m.

    

    

    

	User:	quietspaces
	Date:	2008-07-17 09:51
	Subject:	Housekeeping in the office
	Security:	Public

I've just removed 10 cables and a power strip that were not actually connected to anything. My "cable corner" is amazingly empty.

	User:	handworn
	Date:	2008-07-17 10:38
	Subject:	mug
	Security:	Public

I just created and bought a mug on Zazzle.com. It's a mug with this quote from Emerson:

If our young men miscarry in their first enterprises, they lose all heart. If the young merchant fails, men say he is ruined. If the finest genius studies at one of our colleges, and is not installed in an office within one year afterwards in the cities or suburbs of Boston or New York, it seems to his friends and to himself that he is right in being disheartened, and in complaining the rest of his life. A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always, like a cat, falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He walks abreast with his days, and feels no shame in not 'studying a profession,' for he does not postpone his life, but lives already. He has not one chance, but a hundred chances.

	User:	handworn
	Date:	2008-07-17 09:43
	Subject:	Potpourri
	Security:	Public

The world's natural resources are being squandered in the pursuit of "insatiable consumption," Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday in a speech urging followers to care more for the environment and reconnect with the principle of peace.

	User:	halseanderson
	Date:	2008-07-17 06:13
	Subject:	Nose to Grindstone & WFMAD 17
	Security:	Public

The 18th century beckons so I'll keep this short today.

Bookavore has a wonderful interview with Cory Doctorow.


I know that Gossip Girls and their ilk upset a lot of people, but how is it that they can't see all of the literary books in the bookstore? What do you think about this rant?

Today's goal: Write for 15 minutes.

Today's mindset: terrified

Today's prompt: What smell represents fear to you? Why? Write about a memory with that smell, or give a fear/smell relationship to your character and write a scene in which it comes up.

Scribblescribble...