Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

lostinrates

tomterm8 wrote: »

The way I think about that is kind of like this bloke http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE

Except that I am rude, and he is polite.

The video won't load for me.

The magazine I write for wouldn't exist if anyone of the writers charged, so no one is being put out of a job....only job involved in is the publisher who would lose work if we weren't writing for free I guess.. Most are retired professional creatives, and then there is me. FWIW, I understand the idea..being an ex musician: an industry where it is still considered ok to pay professionals in pizza or beer often enough and where people frequently work for free or pleasure while others starve and have other jobs or rest. I'm afraid, with regret, it goes with the terratory of creative arts: you have to be better in someway..even if its just reliably available.. than the amateurs to earn a crust.

PasturesNew

GDB2222 wrote: »

Hey, what's so wrong with mum renting a flat? Near one of the sibs of course?

Loads of reasons.... responsibility for one. The old is not responsible, unable to be responsible, has never been responsible. It'd be another responsibility for me. Credit checks, rent up front, private landlords .... and vulnerable, naive old ladies .... her neighbours would probably be young/noisy too.

The old needs "people like them" around them - other old dears to natter with ... not to sit in, watching countless people coming/going with their mates.

GDB2222

This sort of thing any use to you? Noticed two vacancies. http://www.housingcare.org/housing-care/facility-info-87326-abbeyfield-house-kingsbridge-england.aspx

tomterm8

lostinrates wrote: »

The video won't load for me.

The magazine I write for wouldn't exist if anyone of the writers charged, so no one is being put out of a job....only job involved in is the publisher who would lose work if we weren't writing for free I guess.. Most are retired professional creatives, and then there is me. FWIW, I understand the idea..being an ex musician: an industry where it is still considered ok to pay professionals in pizza or beer often enough and where people frequently work for free or pleasure while others starve and have other jobs or rest. I'm afraid, with regret, it goes with the terratory of creative arts: you have to be better in someway..even if its just reliably available.. than the amateurs to earn a crust.

I guess the way I look at it is that if you want to be a professional writer, choosing to work for free in writing is not a wise decision.

If you write a 750 word column a week, in two years you have written 78,000 words. The equivalent of one book.

In the current, epublishing world, that book is worth between £500 - £1000 a year, for the rest of your life. If you can sell it to a traditional publisher, you'd get maybe £7,500 advance on it.

That book will bring you closer to your goal of being a full time professional, the articles will (realistically speaking) not bring you any closer.

PasturesNew

GDB2222 wrote: »

This sort of thing any use to you? Noticed two vacancies.

That's where I'm going tomorrow ... except in my county. (We're not in Devon). That one's 150-160 mile round trip.

PasturesNew

tom ... have you noticed an explosion of income on hubs??? I have. Since it went to sub-domains really, so the last 5 weeks or so. If only I'd been able to scribble more sh11te in recent months I could have been well sorted

tomterm8

PasturesNew wrote: »

tom ... have you noticed an explosion of income on hubs??? I have. Since it went to sub-domains really, so the last 5 weeks or so. If only I'd been able to scribble more sh11te in recent months I could have been well sorted

I'm in a dodgy situation on hubpages, most of my pages were dodgy affiliate BS, so the subdomain thing hasn't really done me much good.

I kind of knew that would be the case... but make hay while the sun shines.

For people who were writing information articles (and in fact, on my own information articles), are doing great guns.

I knew what I was doing on hubpages would not last, so it doesn't come as a great surprise to me.

In any case, I have been dipping my toes into ebooks. You can make a ton of money off them. A typical $2.99 book gives you $2 royalty... compared to three years ago, now is the best time I have ever seen for becoming a pro writer. I personally know a couple who in the last year have built an income of £50k from a standing start.

To put this in perspective, a book that is selling for a tenth of what it was three years ago, is making you more money as an author.

lostinrates

tomterm8 wrote: »

I guess the way I look at it is that if you want to be a professional writer, choosing to work for free in writing is not a wise decision.

If you write a 750 word column a week, in two years you have written 78,000 words. The equivalent of one book.

In the current, epublishing world, that book is worth between £500 - £1000 a year, for the rest of your life. If you can sell it to a traditional publisher, you'd get maybe £7,500 advance on it.

That book will bring you closer to your goal of being a full time professional, the articles will (realistically speaking) not bring you any closer.

I think that's a pretty fair assessment. For me atm, I'm stumbling on the other thing.,..the thing carolt nagged me about because stupidly I hadn't backed it up and it went in the last comuter crash. I'm also just not sure it has any appeal: although I know some like the Strawberry in the slurry pit stories but I personally wouldn't buy it. gerald durrell did better and more interestingly years before me. I think also, my life now is rather dull...I like it...but its not as fun and busy as it used to be.

There was certainly very damning assessment from the publisher who looked at it for me....a very critical aquaintance. F|WIW in my family there are two published authors, and they get nothing like £ 1k a year per book, depsite one being a very big success...it was contract written with no royalties! Dh's dad has written literally dozens of books, I should see what his old novel royalties were...it was panned that book:D and came out with unfortunate timing with another book on the same lines but rather better written IMO. I shall see if I can find out what the royalties for that are: he'd have a much bigger splash than I could and it was translated into multiple languages.

fwiw, though I don't remember it I was published for something, v. short pieces of work in the past. It was, my bit, v. well reviewed in broadsheets....I don't recall ever seeing a penny. But neither do I remember the writing...its in a great big hole in my mind that I have never recovered, so I don't count it, because its not part of the me I am now IYSWIM.

So, if I'm too crap to get published properly, but still enjoy the writing, seems a good outlet for me.

PasturesNew

tomterm8 wrote: »

I'm in a dodgy situation on hubpages, most of my pages were dodgy affiliate BS, so the subdomain thing hasn't really done me much good.

I kind of knew that would be the case... but make hay while the sun shines.

For people who were writing information articles (and in fact, on my own information articles), are doing great guns.

I knew what I was doing on hubpages would not last, so it doesn't come as a great surprise to me.

In any case, I have been dipping my toes into ebooks. You can make a ton of money off them. A typical $2.99 book gives you $2 royalty... compared to three years ago, now is the best time I have ever seen for becoming a pro writer. I personally know a couple who in the last year have built an income of £50k from a standing start.

To put this in perspective, a book that is selling for a tenth of what it was three years ago, is making you more money as an author.

I know that .... but I've never found anything to write into an ebook

If I could write one .... I'd have done it. I don't know enough about anything, certainly nothing eye-opening or unique enough to sit down and write one. All I could do would be to research and regurgitate.... and I don't have the confidence to BS like that.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

...if I'm too crap to get published properly, but still enjoy the writing, seems a good outlet for me.

Sounds like a hubpages direction to me. Short, pointless, talentless pieces that get traffic

It works for me.