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While the situation should outrage us, it¹s oddly reassuring to learn that even established, revered writers make incomes well below a living wage, despite the hours they devote to the craft.
My son-in-law once semi-computed that, writing for the COBBLESTONE magazines, I made something like a mill a month. And, with the modest advance I got to offset part of the expenses for researching my book, on which I worked a good part of two-and-a-half or three years, my income is in the dreaded parenthesis column.
When people ask me for advice about writing and topics, I say they must love their topics‹love to the point of obsession. They must love them in the face of negative cash flow, exhaustion, and limited socializing. I told a blogger I had to love it enough even to care that all the commas were consistent.
If only I had a mill for each of those commas, I¹d be financially ahead of where I am.
Cynthia Levinson
We¹ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children¹s March (Peachtree Publishers, February 2012)
Available in audio from Random House/Listening Library in Summer 2012
Website: http://www.cynthialevinson.com/
Blog: Emu¹s Debuts @ http://emusdebuts.wordpress.com/
Cynthia Levinson
We¹ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children¹s March (Peachtree Publishers, February 2012)
Available in audio from Random House/Listening Library in Summer 2012
Website: http://www.cynthialevinson.com/
Blog: Emu¹s Debuts @ http://emusdebuts.wordpress.com/
2 comments:
When my children were in high school, I was careful not to let them know anything about my income. They worked part-time at a bakery, and I was afraid they made more than I did.
ROFL.
I think you're right!
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