posted
For those of you who don't know, I'm a struggling writer. (I promoted myself from starving writer the first time I got paid for something I wrote.) As I'm sure many of you do know, when you're trying to become an author that first professional publication is seen as something of a big deal. Your "big break" into stardom. It's the thing that makes all the rejection letters which you've been using as wallpaper seem worthwhile.
My first professional publication was an ~8000 word short story and about four years ago. Sometime shortly after that was when I realized that that big step is really just the first big step, and there's a whole dang staircase ahead of you still. Having one byline didn't magically make my other stories get accepted, and the wallpaper is coming along quite nicely, thank you. Through a combination of slack, drama, and a period of employement which envolved 60+ hour weeks, I haven't followed up on that first big break quite as much as I'd have liked.
Anyway, it's about time I came to the point (because I'm not getting paid by the word for this post). I'm proud to announce that yesterday I received my THIRD check as a professional writer. It is definitely time to quit my day job and focus entirely on the life of the mind as a beloved and wealthy author. It was for $2.26.
posted
Let's see... $2.26 divided by time writing... carry the 2... I don't know, what's a good pun for "not bloody much"?
This was for some freelance work on a roleplaying supplement line for Tabletop Adventures. Apparently they haven't updated that page yet to reflect that printing was pushed back a bit. It still says April.
Anywho, I got 0.5 cents a word for doing little bits of description that you could throw into your RPG sessions to add flavor without being actual encounters. Much lower per-word rate than my other stuff, but I took the gig because it was short things I could write in between calls at work. The part that's actually kind of cool is that they must have used ALL of the sections I'd submitted. After a couple years since my last publication, I was doing this more for personal validation than the money anyway.
posted
Hey, it doesn't matter how much it was for, Enigmatic. if it were the old days, and you were trying to get into the Olympics, that $2.26 would have disqualified you.
You are a pro! Congratulations!(seriously)
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
That "just my 2 cents" stuff really seems like a bad dream right now, doesn't it? I mean, TWO WHOLE DOLLARS! And some change!
Keep it going, dude!
...from someone who would love to be a writer, but has too much free time to become one... 'Cause, ya know, I'd actually have to DO stuff in my free time then!
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I remember the good old days when a competent writer can make up to $10 per hour reviewing cameras and mp3 players on Epinions. Man, those were the days.
Posts: 4116 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
My first ever check for a published story was $100. That was really exciting.
My second one was for $47 dollars, but that was one check from one company for three submissions sold to them. I'm definitely going downhill.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
My first check was for $280 (advance), followed by $13 and change. That was all I ever received -- the publisher hemmed and hawed for a while, then filed for bankruptcy, and I never saw another cent. They kept selling the book, and owed me over $11K that never got paid. Yeah, I guess I'm still bitter.
Still, $293 was a lot for junior high, though I suppose that Eragon kid is doing a little better. Keep plugging away, dude.
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I tell you guys, that $2 and change is huge for fiction. I started in non-fiction and I got paid assignments for my first two query letters. I thought this writing stuff was easy.
I accidentally sold another piece of non-fiction, and got two assignments over a year after I sent the respective query letters--each of those for $300 each. The last one, published just last month, was only 500 words, and I wrote it on my iPAQ while waiting for people to show up at meetings in my day job.
Fiction, on the other hand, is a lot harder to write, and it's a lot more competitive because there are so many more places to publish non-ficton. (I got $5 for my first paid fiction!) It's also a lot more fun.
Posts: 115 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
At least you did it! I am still looking for my muse (insert courage) to try my hand at fiction. Though I do have several publications they are in scholarly journals and conference procedings (all science stuff) I actually published an article in a magazine called The Chemical Engineer, but got no coin for it, it simply went on the CV. I think my biggest problem is that I am certain that nobody would like my fiction, so it is safest simply to not write any. I can speak about science with great confidence, but I have real anxiety about sharing anything "creative."
Posts: 514 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Tater: is that where that cliche comes from? I just associate it with established writers telling hopeful writers "don't let rejection letters get you down, keep submitting, I had enough rejection letters to wallpaper my house before my best-seller got published" or some such thing.
As a point of clarification, I mention the $2.26 check because I think it's funny to receive a check that's barely more than the gas to drive it to the bank. My first check was $320 from Sword & Sorcery Studios for the aforementioned short story ($0.04/word). I can't remember the exact amount of the second one, but it must have been around $20-$40. This is $2.26. I certainly must be slipping.
These little game things and short stories are really more to build up credits to put on cover letters when it comes time to shop the novel around. Almost done with chapter 2!
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Tater: The wallpaper thing is as old as dirt.
Johnsonweed: My non-fiction, other than my masters thesis, which was as scholarly as anything you did with probably more math, was almost all science, mostly astronomy. If you want to try something, I'd suggest hard SF, and if you want somebody to read it and you don't want to post, email it to me--I've been there.
Posts: 115 | Registered: May 2005
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