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Feature

TAKE THE PLUNGE

You dream of jacking in the day job and becoming a full-time writer. But can you manage it financially? Are you prepared to beaver away alone, day in, day out? Heather Welford explores the realities of the writing life, to help you decide for yourself if you’re at the jumping off point

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‘ Oh, if only I had the time....’ Er, yes, and then what? You’d write that novel, get all those poems in the drawer re-drafted, sorted and sent off, make a start on your memoirs, work up the idea you had for a play into a full-length script and really get started on finding an agent.

Trouble is, work gets in the way of all your good ideas. So give it up, why doncha?

But deciding to relinquish a full-time or even part-time job in order to make the time for the writing you want to do is at least partly a question of cash.

Clearly, sitting in front of your computer writing something you hope is saleable when (if?) it is completed brings in no money at all… and (of course) there is no guarantee you’ll sell it, either.

Even if you do, it may bring in far less money than you need to compensate you for your time.

Kate Pool from the Society of Authors says surveys of its membership – all published writers – show 46 per cent earn less than £5,000 a year from their writing.
‘Giving up other sources of income is a step you should only take when you’ve done enough research into your earning capacity,’ she says.

Huge advances on novels are a headline-grabbing novelty. Says Kate Pool, ‘it’s essential to bear in mind advances on novels are somewhere between £3,000 and £6,000, and that most novels don’t earn out their advance.’ That means your advance may be the very maximum you can expect to earn from that book.

If you are a poet, you may not get any advance at all, and if you do, it is likely to be far more modest. That’s the case with even well-known poets whose books sell in comparatively large numbers.

Neil Astley at Bloodaxe Books, a published poet himself and one of the few publishers in the UK who can append the words ‘bestselling’ to his books, says poets can expect only a few hundred pounds as an advance. ‘Some poets manage to make a living reviewing, writing other material, such as novels, teaching on Arvon courses. But not from writing poetry alone,’ he says.

So the would-be full time writer eschews books with titles like How to Get Published and Make a Lot of Money or How to Write a Book in Forty Days and Get It Published! or No Plot? No Problem!: A High-velocity, Low-stress Way to Write a Novel in 30 Days (all genuine, and in print, by the way) and instead, does some realistic arithmetic before deciding to give up wage slavery completely.

Full-time writer Verite Reily Collins, aged 50, from London, author of Getting into Journalism (Trotman, £8.99) and 14 other non-fiction books, has researched the experience for her books on career choices. Being prepared for the reality of full-time writing is essential.

‘One persistent myth that needs to be challenged is that writing works well with looking after babies and children,’ she says.

Surely true – the sweetly sleeping babe who allows you to work for hours every afternoon is a rarity, and if by some miracle yours is one of them, he soon grows into a non-napping toddler who resents sharing you with a notebook or a PC. Verite says you certainly need to factor in the costs of childcare, to allow you time to work properly. ‘Full-time writing is a job, and it’s hard work, even if it is at home – it’s not a fun thing you can do when you feel like it,’ she says.

Peace and solitude, and no workmates, have their drawbacks for writers. ‘It’s not always good for a writer to live in isolation,’ says Verite Reily Collins. ‘The internet is great for staying in touch and for making new contacts, but it’s not a substitute for face-to-face meetings – you do need to make an effort to keep up with your friends, and I think it’s good to find a supportive class you can attend, not necessarily a writing one.’

It’s also useful to learn about how other writers work, how they use their thoughts and organise them. Read about writers’ ‘methods’ in Mslexia interviews. Read the late Julia Darling’s humane, always interesting, online diary www.juliadarling.co.uk/weblog/index.html.

Then ask yourself some tough questions.

Can you bear your own company for hours, days, even weeks on end?

Have you got to a stage where your writer’s eye and ear are cocked all, or most of, the time?

And have you developed the motivation and the discipline to feel able, even compelled, to write on most days, for most of the day… for most of the year?

Support Work

Can you use some of your time to gain a qualification or a skill to enable you to earn part-time if and when you feel you have to? Many colleges offer City&Guilds 7407 courses that qualify you to teach adults. Typically, these take three to four hours a week for an academic year, with teaching practice each term.

Consider distance learning courses in journalism, sub-editing, IT, desk-top publishing programs like Adobe's InDesign.

Learn Direct (www.learndirect.co. uk) has centres all over the country offering courses which you follow in your own time. Costs are low and, in some cases, free.

HEATHER WELFORD has been a full-time freelance writer for many years. She was part-time when her children were small, but as the years have trickled by, she has been a living example of Parkinson’s law, where the work has fortunately expanded to fit the time available for its completion.

This feature has been selected from the Mslexia archive. For the latest on the writing world, publishing and creativity subscribe now. To sample more Mslexia features or to find out about the latest issue click here.

From Issue 23 ◊ Oct/Nov/Dec 2004

Case Studies

On the brink of
the plunge…

Heledd Phillips is 32,
and from Gloucestershire. She has spent all her working life in the horse-riding world, though she has ‘always wanted to write’. She has started a book, based on her experiences – it’s going to reveal ‘what these horsey people are really like’.

Heledd is about to give up paid work for good, to concentrate on her writing. She took a correspondence course in sports writing, and has had a number of articles published in the equestrian press. She’s taken on a part-time specialist editing job, which will provide a small guaranteed income while she builds up her portfolio and gets on with her book. She’s nervous, but upbeat: ‘ I left school with a single GCSE, in Art, and I have spent the majority of my working life shit-shovelling, and dealing with characters like Rupert-Campbell Black in Jilly Cooper’s Riders. Now the days of me falling off other people’s expensive racehorses are over!’

Tried it – twice

Helen Kaut, 34, from Cardiff, first decided to become a full-time writer in 2001, after quitting her job as a PR assistant in Hamburg, Germany.
She was able to claim unemployment benefit for six months, as she had left because of constant bullying. She was also sponsored by the German equivalent of the job centre as a new business start-up. This gave her the financial cushion she needed to get going. Magazine articles on travel, and on pets, followed.

However, a year later, a move to Cardiff with her partner meant she had to start from scratch – and needed to work at least part-time alongside writing again. But part-time jobs were difficult to find – ‘I had to overcome many obstacles,’ she says, ‘such as opening a bank account without getting treated like a terrorist, getting NI number, referees, and I needed to convince people that my English was good enough for office work.’

Her writing took a back seat, and continued to do so when she took a temporary, part-time job, though she was still pursuing commissions at the time. When it ended, she decided to try freelance writing again. ‘I managed to break into the British health magazine market and am still writing for German pet magazines.’

But she needed money – the articles she was writing were not enough. So she started work again recently, as a receptionist, for three days a week. The balance, she feels, is now ideal. ‘This gives me the Monday, Tuesday and the weekends to work on my own projects and I don’t get stressed over money. The work is very easy, but it gets me out of the house to meet other people and I appreciate the time I spend on my writing work even more.’

Helen hopes to write full time again at some point – but accepts she may have to develop further opportunities to earn
money alongside it. ‘I am now thinking of doing a proofreading/editing course to gain more skills.’

Profession: author

Fiona Gibson, 39, from Biggar, in Lanarkshire, had plenty of editorial and media experience as a journalist and as
a manager, and decided to go freelance after the birth of her children, boy twins now aged seven and a daughter of four.

Like many journalists, she made several attempts at a book. ‘I had the idea for the book that became Babyface since the boys were about two,’ she says. ‘I had several faltering attempts at writing it. I felt guilty writing in the day, when I felt I should have been earning money, and I couldn’t get much done at night – you just can’t polish a book in the night, I find.’

Fiona was confident she could do it. Her book was ‘hen lit’ – ‘chick lit’ all grown up – and she felt the market was right… if only she could get herself to finish it.
In discussions with her partner, she
decided to take a month off, and ‘put my head in the sand about debt’. In fact, her book took a further three to four months to finish, including a three-day stint in a hotel where she did nothing else but write, and she considered taking out a bank loan. However, before things got to that stage, her agent had found a publisher, and Fiona signed a two-book deal (the second book, Wonderboy is out at the end of this year, published by Flame). Fiona now feels she is a full-time author, and is currently working on her third book.

• PHOTO © CORBIS