Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Time Management Tuesday: Sometimes You Have To Adapt

There's no Time Management Tuesday today, because I was at writers' group last night, Monday night being prime Time Management Tuesday blogging time. I did have a couple of TMT posts in mind for this week, but I didn't get far enough ahead with them to make them work for today.

But I am adaptable. So I am going to offer you a link to an article we discussed last night, Writing Secret No. 1 Is Keep Your Day Job by Gina Barreca. Barreca has written or edited or co-written sixteen books. She's been published in many major publications and received a lot of press. This is some of what she has to say about writing/publishing, annotated by moi:
  • "About 17 people make enough money from writing to purchase both a coffee and a bagel every day." A bagel with cream cheese is $3.69 at Dunkin' Donuts. I am told that a cup of coffee there is $2.12. Let's say we're talking $5.70 a day. Multiply it by 365 days, and you come up with $2,080. That's real money for a lot of writers.
  • "I still carry books to sell out of the trunk of my car. If you've ever met me, you know I'm not kidding." I've never done that. I should have. I'm not kidding.
  • "Bookstores can only afford to keep a limited number of titles on their shelves and, except for classic or best selling authors, they only keep those titles for a few months at a time. What happens to books after that?" You don't want to know. It's like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie.
  • "Writing and publishing are blood sports." This actually made me feel pretty good. Tough, in fact. I engage in blood sports. How cool is that? 
I came home pumped up!

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