Authors and Artists that still Wage-Slave

[Ostlander]

Yeah it's a toss up out there. I'll keep writing though, but it would be nice to not have to punch a time clock someday.

The cover art point was a very good one and I can see how they would frown on me using my own...I'd still like to though. THAT part is still in the works and I'm curious to see what they did with it.

KFC snacker, LOL. If I could pay a cable bill with a royalty check I would be happy I suppose.

 

[jeff37923]

I work a night security job that allows me to write when the site is quiet. I've found that if you freelance, its easy to get your work published - there's plenty of places that want content. What's hard is to get paid for your published work. Of the hundred or so articles and columns I've gotten published, I've only been paid for four of them so far. Since I've got a bill-paying job, I can keep indulging my writing habit.

I've seen many people try to pursue their art (music, writing, etc.) and when they first get paid for it, they quit their job and try to chase that dream. After the bills start piling up, they go back to working a regular job and become disallusioned with their art. I decided early on that the old advice was right, "Don't quit your day job" and I didn't.

 

[Ostlander]

Reality sucks, but it pays the bills right now...So where have you been published?

Journalist?

 

[jeff37923]

JTAS and Patron Encounters for paid gaming stuff. Triond for my forays into very low pay - crap publications.

Unpaid work includes about two years of a regular op-ed column in the Norris Bulletin (local paper), some guest editorials in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, some poetry and short stories in a local goth fanzine called Nocturnal Emmissions, and a regular column in the Traveller fanzine Stellar Reaches. I've got a couple more articles that are waiting to be printed, but haven't yet, so I'm not counting them.

I've got to say, writing for Stellar Reaches, although unpaid, has been one of the most rewarding experiences so far. My most recent article submitted is radically different from its original form. Flynn is a good editor and suggested a different approach to the article that I hadn't considered, which led to a substantially different tone for the article, and thus made a much better article once written. I had not known just how a good editor, who is involved in the content of his publication, can grant you such an enjoyable experience when you write. Most editors I've found are like on/off switches - they either love what you wrote and will print it or they hate what you wrote and won't print it, they hardly ever get involved with the writer to help create something worthy of being printed. Flynn is a breath of fresh air that way.

I'm not a journalist, but the one I do know who is a staff reporter for the Knoxville News-Sentinel has a love-hate relationship with his profession. To be a staff reporter, he had to sign an exclusionary contact that prevents him from getting any work published under his own name. I keep telling him that he should just use a pseudonym, but he's afraid of losing his job should his boss find out and I can understand that.

 

[Ostlander]

I flaked out!

I find that the unpaid work is usually the most satisfying myself, but it would be nice to get a check everytime I do something creative! Not gonna happen though, LOL.

The risk of getting fired for doing a little something on the side sucks and I wish your friend the best of luck.

 

[I'm A Banana]

To "make a living" writing is a constant stream of no health insurance, chinese take-out, and rat-infested apartments.

Followed by one day getting lucky.

And back to the flophouse the next day.

For most I know, you don't have a career writing. You write, and you also have a job.

(In a lot of ways, it's like having two jobs: one you have to do to keep doing the one you want to do).

 

[Ostlander]

Oh yeah totally and I opened this thread for others that do the same I suppose. I learn a lot by listening and observing others. There's people who have broken away and those that maintain the "two job" routine like me; I like hearing the stories.

Rat infested apartments...Chinese food...do I know you? Have you seen my place? BTW I have mice, but they'll starve soon...

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Out of curiosity Ostlander, what's the book about? Is it a novel? A gaming book?

Olaf the Stout

 

[Ostlander]

It's a fantasy novel, well more like dark fantasy. It's a novel. I've read, watched, and played (D&D for nearly 20 years WOOOOOOOH! until I decided to leave the scene for good in '04)) all sorts of fantasy genres and I just got sick of the good guys wear white hats sort of scene. I never did this before so it's difficult to answer what it's about, other than it's a story that was locked into my head for years and now it's going to be in print.

I'm not what I envision a person who writes books IS...I work at a dead end health care job, have x wives, few friends anymore, my family disowned me, swore off relationships, drink too much, smoke too much, too much whorin', gamblin', and...Oh crap...I'm fitting into an image now...well anywho...turning down the Pavement and Eliot Smith now seems like a good idea.

I took a chance and decided to dip my feet a bit into some very dark and unknown waters. My English instructor said I could write (with a good spell checker handy), so I dropped out of my meaningless and all too expensive college program. In less than a year I wrote a book and I'm on my second; unfortunately I got the internet after nearly two years and have not wrote much!! I should be writing now...Oh there's WORD and there's my story...so why am I neglecting it? Poor thing...

New toy syndrome I suppose.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Rat infested apartments...Chinese food...do I know you? Have you seen my place? BTW I have mice, but they'll starve soon...

NOT IF YOU EAT THEM FIRST!

No one gets into an "artistic" career for the money, that's for sure. If you're lucky, you win the lottery and manage to make your name big, but you can't make that happen (or, at least, most of us who don't have publishers and Oprah that owe us big favors can't make that happen ).

I've recently moved to NYC, and I've noticed that this place, at least, is chock full of people in the same scenario.