[what's up wednesday] Who Are You Again?

It’s time for What’s Up Wednesday, in which I share 5 miscellaneous things from the previous week!

1) I has a school visit, and the school had no idea I was coming. Long story short–the visit was arranged by a third party and somebody dropped the ball. It all worked out OK, but…ugh.

2) I only owe a few hundred dollars in taxes. Yay! I was worried I would owe a lot.

3) My friend and Mentors for Rent partner Lisa Bullard’s novel is up on Amazon! Turn Left at the Cow comes out this fall from Harcourt. It’s Lisa’s first novel (she’s the author of many picture books and nonfiction books), and it is a blast!

4) Feb. 15 was the one-year anniversary of my sister JP’s stroke. She’s still in the rehab center, and we’re hoping she’ll return home in the next six months. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers for her.

5) I signed up for a tbr challenge, committing to reading a certain number of books off my tbr (to-be-read) list over 2013. However, I have no idea where I signed up! Oh well. I am going to try to get better at tackling my tbr pile regularly.

Now…what’s up with you on this fine Wednesday?

[my writing life] How Much Money Does a Writer Make? (2012 edition)

If you think it’s impolite to talk about finances, skip this post!

Every year for the past few years, I’ve shared my income breakdown on this blog. It’s hard for writers to figure out if and how they can earn a living through their writing and related activities, largely because there’s little info out there. So I share every year. And it’s that time again.

2012 was definitely a better year for me than 2011. Thank goodness. It was nice not to need to get a holiday retail job!

Here’s the breakdown of what I earned last year.

Web Work: I update webpages through the Children’s Literature Network. In 2012, this accounted for $2,405 of my income. One of the reasons I keep doing this freelance work is that it lets me interact with lots of other writers, which I love. It helps me stay a little bit on top of new and forthcoming books, too, as I see what various members have coming out. Of course, it also contributes greatly to my looming TBR pile. Sigh.

Trade Book Sales: My trade sales totaled $4,993. Yay! More than twice my 2011 total. Um, not exactly a livable wage, however. Like most writers, I would love to earn a living off of trade books advances and royalties. Clearly, I still have a long way to go! I did meet one goal and sold a follow-up manuscript to Leaf Can Be…, Water Can Be… (coming out in 2014). And although Stampede has not earned out its advance, BookSpeak!: Poems About Books did! It was so exciting to get a royalty statement with a real check attached! I had about $2,100 in royalties for BookSpeak, plus my $2,700 advance for Water Can Be…, plus a few small sales to anthologies, magazines, etc., for that total of almost $5,000.

Work-for-Hire Books: $7,913. This amount includes four math picture book/board book sets for Capstone, a very short novel for reluctant readers for Heinemann, and several kindergarten-level shared readers (for an educational publisher through a packager–for digital production). Those shared readers were a mix of nonfiction, fiction, and rhyme. (If you’re interested in doing this kind of writing, learn more about my textbook for writers here.)

Assessment: $7,075. Well, this is a part of my writing business that’s growing that I wish wasn’t. I mean, I actually enjoy a lot of the writing I do for assessment companies–I just wish there was less testing in the schools and therefor less need for those passages. I mostly write nonfiction passages and poetry for use in standardized tests. The poems usually have to be fairly lengthy and detailed, so that they can support a dozen or so multiple-choice questions. And I have to write them so that certain standards can be covered, like using context clues to determine the meaning of a word. So that would mean I’d include a word 2 or 3 grade levels above the grade the passage is for, and I’d make sure to include enough context clues in the sentences surrounding that word that a student can figure out the meaning even if she’s never heard the word before.

Teaching/Speaking: $3,250. This was fun stuff! I again co-led a writing retreat/intensive with Lisa Bullard in Wisconsin (though this was the last year for that, I think). I judged a community poetry contest in the Chicago area and also finished out my commitment with the Shabo Mentorship at The Loft. These were all great experiences!

School Visits: $4,670. School visits and young authors conferences were up somewhat in 2012, and even more so so far in 2013! I love visiting schools, and it’s demanding but rewarding work. 

Mentors for Rent: $3,650. Mentors for Rent, the hourly writers’ mentoring business I run with Lisa Bullard, is growing little by little. We’re starting to see many repeat customers, which we love. We have an ebook on How to Query an Agent or Editor and an ebook on Writing for the Educational Market, too. This year, we hope to keep growing and also to produce more helpful materials for writers–probably with a focus on quick tips.

That’s a total of about $33,956. That’s a 77% increase over my 2011 income. Thank goodness! NOTE: This is gross income. This doesn’t include any of my own expenses–travel, promotion, office supplies, etc. (ballpark of around $8,000)–nor the taxes I paid (which were around $4,500).

My goal was $40,000, and I didn’t hit that, but I at least came closer. For 2013, my income goal is again $40,000, and I have lots of writing goals and writing dreams, which I’ll share more about another week.

I hope this info is helpful to you. If you have a different job and write just for self-expression or love, great! Or if you write full-time, but don’t need to contribute a certain amount to your household budget, great! This info is for those of you who, like me, want to write, love to write, but need to earn income, too. I hope you met your 2012 writing goals!

P.S. Please Like or Share with other writers you know if you think this info might be useful to them. Thanks:>)

[what's up wednesday] Taxes, Wonder, and Failure

I’m trying something new here, a short roundup called What’s Up Wednesday, in which I share 5 miscellaneous things from the previous week. Here goes:

1) A Leaf Can Be . . .  is in the Scholastic Book Club Imagine & Discover flyer (perfect for Leaf), which features science and math books for k-2. Yippee! (Sorry the pic is sideways!)

2) After about 15 hours of prep, I turned in my tax stuff to my accountant–yay! Waiting impatiently to see if I owe money. Hey, this means it’s almost time for my annual income blog report. Coming soon…

3) I’m still floating about the Cybils, of course, and I’m cheering extra hard for Wonder. This is my favorite kind of novel–a flawed but likable kid battling huge obstacles. Fifth-grader Auggie, with a severe facial deformity, is going to public school for the first time. Do not miss this beautiful, funny book. (Longer thoughts at Goodreads and Amazon.)

4) There was a fun segment on NPR’s Morning Edition in which Neil Gaiman shares his favorite movies and television shows.

5) I’ve had so many wonderful surprises lately for both Leaf and BookSpeak, and I appreciate all your support and cheering! I think I’m going to post soon about some recent failures, too, just so you see both sides of the writing life:>)

Poem-a-Day: #24

black ink jumps off page
somersaults, bounces, leaps high–
royalty statement!

–Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved

I just got my April royalty statement, and attached was the first royalty check I’ve ever gotten. It’s not a big check, mind you. A week of working at Target would pay more. But it means some people are actually reading BookSpeak!, so it’s the happiest-looking paper I’ve ever seen, I think.

How Much Money Does a Writer Make? (2011 edition)

If you think it’s impolite to talk about finances, skip this post!

Every year for the past few years, I’ve shared my income breakdown on this blog. It’s so hard for writers to figure out if they can earn a living through their writing and related activities, largely because there’s little info out there. So I share every year, sometimes with pride, other times (cough, cough) with dismay and more than a little embarrassment. I know income does not directly correlate, necessarily, with skill, passion, or a job well done. The people in some of the professions I most admire make very little money. Still, as a small business person…ack. Anyway, here’s my 2011 edition:

Keep in mind, this is only gross income. (And for 2011, gross really applies.) This doesn’t include any of my own expenses–travel, promotion, office supplies, etc.–nor the taxes I have to pay.

2011 was a bad year, financially. My worst in a long time. Sigh. The rough economy and my huge time commitment to doing a year of drum corps combined to squash my income like a bug. So be warned. And here goes: 

Web Work: I maintain and update webpages through the Children’s Literature Network. In 2011, this accounted for $1,545 of my income. This is not a big chunk of income, obviously, but I like keeping my hand in with this fantastic organization.

Trade Book Sales: Another year without a trade book sale. Ugh. I did get the second half of my BookSpeak! advance, plus $450 for a couple of poems in a Georgia Heard anthology–yay! (And I have made a trade sale for a follow-up to Leaf Can Be… in 2012.)  So that came out to a total $2,150. 

Work-for-Hire Books: $5,768. This is only about half of 2010′s amount. That included the second half of payment for two Picture Window books about emotions, three really fun monster-related e-books (can’t wait to see them!) with Jackson Fish, and one easy e-reader. This also includes some copyediting I did for a book packager and the kill fee for a work-for-hire fiction middle-school book that was accepted by the editors but then killed by the project manager. Not a stellar year.

Assessment: $1,200. This was a mixture of nonfiction and poetry, mostly poetry, sold to assessment companies for use in their standardized tests. The poems usually have to be fairly lengthy and detailed, so that they can support a dozen or so multiple-choice questions. A lot of times I’ll use an existing poem and then make it longer and edit it in other ways to make it usable in a testing situation. It’s always a challenge, but interesting to do.

Teaching/Speaking: $2,500. I really enjoyed this work in 2011. This income came from two events: the Redbery Writer’s Retreat I co-led with Lisa Bullard in Wisconsin and the first half payment for the Shabo Mentorship I was the mentor for for The Loft. Both were great experiences, and I connected with many terrific writers!

School Visits: $2,067. The other half came from 5 or 6 days’ worth of Young Author’s Conferences and school visits (of course, the prep time was lots more than that). I’m re-vamping my school visit presentations and also hoping to get into Skype visits shortly.

Marketing Consultant: $2,670. This was the tail end of a short-term project that I took on for 2010. I put aside other income streams like online classes to take on this project, which was interesting and paid well. It wrapped up in the first couple of months of 2011, and I’m still trying to figure out how to balance my income streams.

Addendum: Mentors for Rent: $1,200. I somehow deleted this entry earlier! Mentors for Rent (new website coming soon) is a small business I run with Lisa Bullard, where we mentor kids’/ya writers for an hourly rate. We started out very slow and small, but we’re getting great feedback. We’re hoping to really grow this business this year!

That’s a total of about $19,100. Only a bit more than 1/3 of my 2010 income ($53,600). Ouch. I could make more money working at Target. But could I do that full-time and let go of my writing? No way.

So, those were my fairly pathetic income numbers in 2011. This year, I’m really focusing on getting my income back into shape. We’ll see if it pays off.

I hope you supported yourself doing something you love, too! Or, if you weren’t able to support yourself at it (like I couldn’t have this year), I hope it at least kept you in cute shoes and caramel brownies.

Selling Autographed Books on Half.com: Part 3

Hi, writers, this is the final entry in this little series (you’ll find Part 1 here and Part 2 here) about selling your books on Half.com.

How do I process orders? OK, I’ve only had two orders so far, so this is based on very limited experience! But basically, Half.com emails me when I make a sale. I print out a packing slip, pack up the book, and mail it Media Mail with Delivery Confirmation. Then I go back online to my account and mark that order as Shipped. They let the buyer know the book is on the way. And that’s it.

On that packing slip that Half.com provides, there’s a bit asking the Buyer to leave feedback on Half.com. Good feedback results in little stars and percentages and other cute things that let potential Buyers know you’re reputable. Unfortunately, my first Buyer had technical difficulties and couldn’t leave feedback. She even contacted Half.com but couldn’t get anywhere. and my second Buyer I couldn’t print out a packing slip for–the page kept erroring. So, there are technical issues now and then.

Then twice a month. Half.com deposits my earnings directly into my checking account. My first deposit was $10.72. (Book price was $9, buyer paid $3.07 for shipping, and Half.com took $1.35 commission on the sale.) Woohoo! I can buy that DQ Blizzard I’ve been wanting:>)

How do I find buyers? As I mentioned before, people just browsing Half.com are not going to buy my books, because big re-sellers are selling them much more cheaply. My hope is that people who know me or know of me through my classes, my mentoring, Facebook, my blog, etc.–that those people, if they want books for their kids or schools, might want signed copies of my books. And my main audience will be, I think, people who hear me speak at schools or libraries. In fact, I should probably make up postcards or something that I can hand out to interested people.

I don’t anticipate huge sales or anything. I’ve donated tons of my books to schools and other institutions and will continue to do that. But I’m hoping having my Half.com store set up will make it easier for people who do want to purchase my books for the educational market to do so.

And hopefully this little series will help you decide whether it’s something you want to mess with, too. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I’ll answer if I can. I’ll probably do a little update the first time I have to pay sales tax to let you know if it’s as simple as they promised. I’m skeptical but hopeful!

How Much Money Does a Writer Make? (2010 edition)

If you think it’s impolite to talk about finances, skip this post!

Every year for the past few years, I’ve shared my income breakdown on this blog. Trying to figure out whether you can earn a living doing writing and writing-related things is excruciatingly difficult because there’s so little concrete info out there. So, here’s my 2010 edition:

Keep in mind, this is only gross income. This doesn’t include any of my own expenses–travel, promotion, office supplies, etc.–nor the taxes I have to pay (which worked out to about $17,000).

As always, I found myself juggling a ton of different activities in 2010 do a whole bunch of different things to make up my income. Most relate to and interact with my writing in some way. 

Here goes:

Web Work: I maintain and update webpages through the Children’s Literature Network. In 2009, this accounted for $3,167 of my income. I used to do some other accounts, too, but all I retained this year was CLN. I like being in contact with children’s writers and illustrators, and it’s pretty low-stress occasional work. Just a couple of hours per week.

Trade Book Sales: I didn’t make a single trade sale in 2010. I am SO depressed. On the income side, I did get my advance for a book I have coming out with Millbrook in spring 2012. After my agent’s percentage, that came out to $2,590. I am really hoping I have at least one trade sale in 2011. 

Work-for-Hire Books: $12,000. This is the same amount as last year! I wrote five Colors of… books for Capstone, one leveled reader that almost killed me for a book packager, two books of verse about emotions for Capstone, and a very nifty book about using photos to inspire poetry, also for Capstone. The bad news? I didn’t get a single assignment for this winter/spring from Capstone or any of its imprints. Not sure what that signifies. 

Assessment: $2,600. This was actually mostly from poetry! I wrote a bunch of poems on contract for an assessment company. The poems have to be long and detailed enough to support 12 questions each, or sometimes a related pair of poems can support 12 questions. I can often use an already-written poem as the starting point and then expand it, add specific poetic techniques they need to assess, etc. It’s an interesting challenge. 

Teaching/Speaking: $1,225. This is a huge drop from 2009. That’s because I didn’t really teach online at all in 2010. I pretty much put that on hiatus in order to do the marketing consultant work below. 

School Visits: $11,750. This was a great year for school visits for me. I did a bunch of school visits and Young Authors Conferences. However, this year, all I have booked is one day at a school and four Young Authors Conference days. My school visit income will be WAY down in 2011. 

Marketing Consultant: $20,275. This was new to me at the end of 2009 and throughout 2010. It was interesting work and good pay, so I put aside my online teaching and a few other things in order to make time for it. However, the big projects are finished now, so this has dropped down wildly since the new year. It will likely only be a few thousand dollars for 2011. I knew going into it that that would happen, so it’s not a shock. This year, however, I’m trying to figure out anew how to balance my various income-producing activities.

That’s a total of about $53,600. That’s up almost 50% from last year! After my income dropping the past two years, it’s a nice change of direction. However, dwindling school visits and marketing consultant work will bring it back down for 2011. Way down. But just like I couldn’t focus too much on the lower income the past two years, I can’t focus too much on the higher income this past year. I worked intensely hard all the years–as a freelancer, you have to work unbelievably efficiently and hard in order to earn a livable income. And the income doesn’t necessarily vary as a result of my efforts. It’s market conditions. Sometimes there are higher-paying jobs available, sometimes not. So I’ll just keep plugging along, trying to keep all the balls I’m juggling in the air, ever grateful to earn a living through writing-related stuff…

So, those were my income sources in 2010. I hope you supported yourself doing something you love, too! 

How Much Money Does a Writer Make (2009 edition)

Last three days! If you’re willing, please click on the aqua banner below and vote for Stampede! Thanks so much:>)

 

Each year for the past couple of years, I’ve shared my income information in the hopes of making money a less taboo topic among children’s writers.

2008 money post
2007 money post

Our taxes are now done, so I’m ready to share my 2009 info! Of course, this is only gross income. This doesn’t include any of my own expenses–travel, promotion, office supplies, etc.–nor the taxes I have to pay (which work out to somewhere between 30 and 40% of my gross income).

As usual, I do a whole bunch of different things to make up my income. Most relate to and interact with my writing in some way. 

Here goes:

Web Work: I maintain and update webpages through both Winding Oak and the Children’s Literature Network. In 2009, this accounted for $4,600 of my income. I recently stopped doing the Winding Oak work, though I am still maintaining author pages for the Children’s Literature Network. I kept the CLN work even though it pays a lower hourly rate than the Winding Oak work. The reason I did this is that the CLN work is more reactive. I just respond to requests to add or update pages. And the pages are templated, so there’s very little learning curve. There are no urgent deadlines, and it doesn’t require mental energy on behalf of clients, where I had to think about, "Hmm…it’s almost the end of the month, and I don’t have Writer XYZ’s beginning-of-month updates. I should contact her!" I can barely keep track of all my own stuff. It was too stressful to always have that in the back of my mind for other people. I do miss the contact with the fabulous writers whose Winding Oak sites I maintained, but it was the right decision for me, stresswise.

Trade Book Sales: Bleh. I didn’t make a single penny on trade book sales in 2009. I did sell a trade book, so that’s good news (in fact, I just got my first half of the advance on Saturday!). Stampede is nowhere near earning out its advance. But with a new book sale and a previous sale finally moving forward, here’s hoping this category will look a lot better in 2010! Total: $0
 

Work-for-Hire Books: $12,000. I wrote four Science Songs books for Picture Window Books and eight Alphabet Books for Capstone Press.  Oh, and one leveled reader for a book packager. Not all the income for all 13 books came in during the calendar year, but that is most of it! 

Assessment: $800. These were four nonfiction passages I wrote for an assessment company. I also sold a boatload of poems to an assessment company at the end of the year, but I didn’t get paid until after the new year.

Teaching/Speaking: $9,600. This money came from almost exclusively from teaching online last year! Hardly any in-person stuff, which is unusual. This year will be more of a mix.

School Visits: $5,800. This was an area I’ve been trying to increase, and it’s working! I did 12 days’ worth of school visits and Young Authors Conferences in 2009. They take a lot of prep time, but they’re a great mix of promotion for my books, connections with my audience, and income. They exhaust me, but I actually really enjoy them.

Marketing Consultant: $3,500. This is something new for me. I am doing some freelance consulting work for a financial firm. I’m helping with things like a book they’re self-publishing and a website redesign. I’m not actually doing the designing or anything, but I’m kind of the middleman between their marketing person and the subcontractors. It’s a bit out of my comfort zone, but I’m applying the stuff I’m learning there to my writing career. For instance, I learned all about Constant Contact, a service for sending out html emails, and I just started using that service for my own monthly update emails. Plus the cash is nice:>)

That’s a total of about $36,300. That’s down about 9% from last year. Shoot. That’s down two years in a row. But I’m trying to find the time to work on trade projects, which don’t bring in any immediate money but will hopefully figure into the budget in the future. And I’m just trying to lower my stress level enough to actually enjoy the fact that I get to make a living from writing-related stuff. Don’t get me wrong. I worked my butt off for that amount of income. Lots of books. Lots of poems. Several trade projects that my agent is trying to sell. But I just mean I can’t focus too much on the lower income, because if all I concentrate on is the money, I’ll be miserable. 

So, those are the main ways I made income in 2009. I hope you’re finding ways to support yourself doing what you love (or at least tasks related to what you love!).

How Much Money Does a Writer Make? (2008 edition)

If you’re a person who thinks it’s rude to talk about finances–skip this!

A while back, I blogged about my income from 2007. I did that because money is such an off-limits topic to many people, and yet, when you’re trying to figure out whether you can survive as a writer, you need people to talk about it. And now it’s time for the update. It’s August, and I’m finally taking a bit of time to look back at my 2008 income and give a recap. Like most writers, I scrap together a patchwork income from many sources. Looking back at my 2008 business plan, these are the totals I find. Keep in mind this is gross income only. It doesn’t include any of my office expenses, travel for conferences, etc. Here goes: Web Work: I maintain and update webpages through both Winding Oak and the Children’s Literature Network. In 2008, this accounted for $8,500 of my income. Trade Book Sales: I received one-half of my advance for a children’s poetry book, Bookspeak: Poems By and About Books, plus a tiny royalty check for an old book. Total: $1,750

Work-for-Hire Books: $13,350. That’s a big step down from last year on work-for-hire, reflecting the fact that I didn’t spend quite as much time on it and that I didn’t have the set of 10 poetry books for Capstone, which had been a large chunk of my 2007 work-for-hire income. In 2008, I wrote 4 science songs, 2 ecosystem books, and 4 animal classification books for Picture Window Books (all for K-2), plus 4 alphabet books for Capstone Press. I think that’s everything. Well, everything I got paid for during the calendar year, anyway. So that’s a total of 14 work-for-hire books. There were also a few work-for-hire assignments in there that weren’t books.

Assessment: $1,500. These are passages I wrote for assessment companies.

Teaching/Speaking: $13,030. This money came from some one-day writing workshops at the Loft Literary Center and numerous online classes.  This was a big jump from last year. I enjoy teaching and speaking, but I’m still trying to find the right balance!

School Visits: $1,900. 2008 was the first year I did enough school visits to make a separate income category for them.  I’ve done a bunch so far in 2009, and this is one area I’m trying to increase, since they’re a great convergence of connecting with kids, promoting books, and making some income.

So that’s a total of about $40,000. That’s down about 28% from the previous year, which is not good for the family budget. But that’s the life of a freelancer.

Right now, I’m considering an ongoing freelance position of about 10 hours per week in marketing/PR. This possible job would be decent, regular money, with a company of good people doing interesting work, which is a nice thing. The problem is, I’m already working more hours per week than I really have available. So something would have to go. But every single one of the scraps of my patched-together income offers me something besides just money. And the job would stretch me past my current skill level in the marketing/promotion arena. That makes me anxious. But it also interests me, and I know my own book promotion efforts would benefit from some of the skills I would expand doing this job. So I’ll keep pondering how best to find the balance between income, love of writing, and interesting, challenging work.

It was really helpful for me to lay out here the various income streams I’m relying on and how each one is going. I hope it’s helpful to some of you out there who are considering writing (and all its related tasks) as a possible career.

How Much Money Does a Writer Make? 2007

If you’re a person who thinks it’s rude to talk about finances–skip this!

 

I’ve been thinking recently that one of the things children’s writers wonder about is money. Usually because we don’t make any.Of course there are exceptions. There are children’s writers who make a living solely off their book sales. I think there are 4. Which leaves the other 9,996 scrambling to put together an income off this crazy, wonderful, unreliable world of children’s publishing. OK, maybe there are more than 4. But most children’s writers I know who actually make a living  off of writing do it by cobbling together an income from many different sources. This has been on my mind even more than usual lately. Partially because I’ve had a few different students in my online classes ask how realistic it is to make a living at this. And partly because my husband and I sat down a couple of months ago to re-do our family budget and make it more realistic. I was feeling way too much pressure because I had been unrealistic about what I hoped to earn this year.

So in the interest of sharing specifics for those of you who are wondering whether to quit the day job, I’m looking back over my 2007 business plan and sharing my deep dark financial secrets with you. All of my various jobs are/were related to writing or children’s books in some way.

Minneapolis Star Tribune: I used to work part-time for the website of the Trib, and in 2007 (my last year there), I made $13,000 after taxes. But I didn’t have enough taxes taken out to offset my writing income, apparently. I no longer work there (newspaper industry is in the toilet, if anyone’s not already aware of that), and trying to make up that income elsewhere has been a major stressor in ’08!

Web Work: I maintain and update webpages through both Winding Oak and the Children’s Literature Network. In 2007, this accounted for $5,000 of my income.

Trade Book Sales: I received one advance for a children’s poetry book, Stampede! Poems About the Wild Side of School, plus a tiny royalty check for an old book. Total: $3,725

Work for Hire Books: $26,000. That’s the most I’ve ever made in a year for WFH books! That includes 10 poetry books for Capstone, Write Your Own Poetry and Scrapbooking for Fun for Compass Point, three life-cycle books for Picture Window, and a book on Gallaudet University for Trillium. So, a total of 16 books. There were also a few work-for-hire assignments in there that weren’t books.

Assessment: $2,150. These are passages I wrote for assessment companies.

Teaching/Speaking/School Visits: $5,450. This money came from some one-day writing workshops at the Loft Literary Center, some prepayment for an online class that I actually taught in January of this year, an appearance at a Young Scientists Conference, and a couple of writing conference appearances.

That makes a grand total of about $55,000. But I really hustled to make that and didn’t have very much time to work on my own writing projects that I’d really like to work on. Actually, really hustled is a kind way to put it. I maintained a brutal schedule all year. It’s not a pace I could keep up year in, year out. Plus I didn’t pay quarterly taxes (I’d never needed to before), so I ended up owing about $9,000 in taxes at the end of the year, on top of the money I’d already been setting aside in my “taxes savings account.” Yikes. I’m mailing in those quarterly tax payments now! (And yes, I do use an accountant, deduct my home office and all my expenses, etc.)

2008 is different. No Trib income, for one. And fewer WFH books. The poetry books were fun, but a fluke. Not many of those in educational publishing. So I’ve been trying to figure out how to maintain some kind of reasonable income as well as my sanity. Maybe I’ll check back in on this topic in January or February to see how 2008 compared to 2007.

I’ve always wished I knew how much money other writers make and how they make it, not from a nosy standpoint, but just from a career-planning and budgeting view! I hope this info’s helpful to people really trying to figure out how to make a livable income off their writing!