Comments on: In it for The Money: How to Career as a Writer

By: Steve Thorpe

Steve Thorpe — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 15:43:20 +0000

As someone who toils in that particular bean field, I must say that helping someone to become a writer is cruel and sadistic. Not quite as bad as suggesting they go to law school (and certainly cheaper), but still heartless.

Welding is nice.

By: Carol Ullmann

Carol Ullmann — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 20:35:29 +0000

Woah, that’s me, mother of the truck-stealing toddler (now 8 years old). God I hated those library story times, but I guess it paid off. I never knew until today the tremendous impact that had on you — so good! Thank you for sharing this. And it still goes down in my personal history as one of the strangest synchronicities of my life. Stranger than fiction.

Double underline on the “just be yourself” (#2) because that is what made you memorable to me from our short conversation. Every other story time experience my son and I had was dull or negative and has been wiped from memory for posterity.

By: TeacherPatti

TeacherPatti — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 19:00:10 +0000

Nice article! Before I started my quest to find an agent/publisher for my YA book, I would have agreed that everyone has contacts and everyone offers opportunities. Sadly, I have found the latter to not be true (for the most part–Sarah Zettel has been a huge source of support!). I do know that if I ever get published, I pledge to be as helpful as possible.

As Vivienne says, there is likely a different between freelance and bigtime! serious! author! and maybe that is what I am running into. Likewise, I also very much respect anyone who can be self employed at anything–especially freelance writing.

PS: The same is true in teaching…it is very helpful to “know” people. I know of a few special ed jobs in the county where I teach if anyone wants to email me about them!

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 18:58:22 +0000

Dear David,

God bless you, your wife and your little one(s). Please keep up your wonderful writing. Thank you for the smiles, thank you for your making memories come alive again. Thank you for making others’ past come alive with your present.

My unsolicited advice (with the caveat to you that I am not professional writer) – hang in there with that wife, hang in there with those little ones, hang in there with that career. As the Desiderata correctly asserts [link] “Keep interested in your career, however humble” (it helps if you love it – as you no doubt know); “it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.”

From my experience, even if the book of your life doesn’t net you billions of dollars, the “ride of your life” – your “trips around the sun” with you and family together – can be more worthwhile than all of the treasures of the world. Even if you don’t have the time to get the book of your life to print, may the book of you and your family’s life be the greatest story you’ve ever told.

All the best, David. And thanks again.

By: Vivienne Armentrout

Vivienne Armentrout — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 14:37:05 +0000

I realize that this column is written in jest, but I spent a couple of years as a freelance writer and got to know quite a few freelancers by participating in an informal group [link] which was quite a help in comprehending this world. There was a great deal of advice as well as the sense of support from knowing others in the field. (Vickie Elmer is my personal hero; she has made a career of helping others in addition to her own excellent writing career.) (You'll see some of Vickie's helpful hints on that blog.) I would guess that the life of a serious novelist or the writer of a serious non-fiction book is rather different. And I suspect that if you try to be either of those things AND be a freelancer to support yourself, you are doomed to a certain level of frustration and unmet goals. Anyway, I have great respect for those who must actually make a living in this way. There are a lot of hardships and difficulties, and the result is that we get some good articles to read.