Authors discuss the unexpected realities of being full-time writers, including business aspects, self-promotion, publisher demands, and the importance of non-writing tasks. They share insights on managing schedules, task switching, and the impact of website engagement on their careers.
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insights INSIGHT
Full-Time Author Reality Check
Being a full-time author involves much more than just writing stories.
It includes managing business tasks, finances, edits, and fan interaction, which is unexpected for many new authors.
insights INSIGHT
Writers as Small Business Owners
Writers are essentially small business owners, contracted rather than employed.
This realization surprises many who expected traditional employment by publishers.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Maintain Fan Communities
Maintain and engage fan communities regularly to sustain passion for your work.
Delegating technology oversight helps, but authors must participate to keep fans connected and invested.
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This the third in our series of retrospective episodes. The most important thing Dan learned this year? Being a full-time author is a lot different than he thought it would be. How different? What was Dan expecting? Was he really imagining silk pajamas and a notebook computer on the beach? We talk about the types of non-writing work that we've found ourselves doing, and why those things are so important to us and to our careers. We discuss how our publishers' schedules impact our own, and why writers are often expected to drop whatever they're doing in order to handle something for their publisher. During our discussion we mention a new local novelist Aprilynne Pike, whose debut book Wings is available now, and made #6 on the NYT Bestsellers List for Children's Chapter Books. Episode 32 has been brought to you by "A Snack." But hurry! We don't pause for long! Writing Prompt: Write the first page of a story, stop, write a first page of a different story and then go back and finish the first story.
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