Just spent the evening rounding up my receipts for upcoming tax preparation. I tried to be so careful and so diligent! I was probably 80% careful and diligent. Though the diligence here errs on the side of caution: I'll be taking fewer deductions (because I don't have the necessary receipt).
Part of my slackness was because it didn't occur to me until about April--i.e., about when I got my agent--that I'd be able to really and truly show a profit motive for the writing in 09. Then, lo and behold, I actually broke $400 (the hobby income limit) for writing this year! First time!
For those not keeping track at home, my writing income by year:
2004: $235
2005: $5
2006: $355
2007: $380
2008: $391
2009: $430
Can you make a living at short stories? Well, *I* can't. Not in 6 years. But I also only break about 8-9,000 Google hits on my name, and I have this sneaking suspicion that Google hits are correlated with income in this arena. Somehow. Maybe a survey? Maybe NOT.
How's that for glamor? How's that for ritz? Mnnmh.
Nope. The name of this game is patience and fortitude. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something.
Part of my slackness was because it didn't occur to me until about April--i.e., about when I got my agent--that I'd be able to really and truly show a profit motive for the writing in 09. Then, lo and behold, I actually broke $400 (the hobby income limit) for writing this year! First time!
For those not keeping track at home, my writing income by year:
2004: $235
2005: $5
2006: $355
2007: $380
2008: $391
2009: $430
Can you make a living at short stories? Well, *I* can't. Not in 6 years. But I also only break about 8-9,000 Google hits on my name, and I have this sneaking suspicion that Google hits are correlated with income in this arena. Somehow. Maybe a survey? Maybe NOT.
How's that for glamor? How's that for ritz? Mnnmh.
Nope. The name of this game is patience and fortitude. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something.
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merriehaskell- Mer, rhymes with bear
- Merrie Haskell (it's dot com!)
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Then again, those people don't have day jobs. (Jim Hines does, at 60,000 hits, but the data is polluted because there are a bunch of other Jim Hineses listed.)
I don't know. Looking at the other writers who have been on my f-list as long as you have, it actually seems to me that's you've been building name recognition fairly fast - and I'm pretty sure that's one of those things that looks much slower from inside.
(... except 2008. I lost a few thou that year, not counting what i owe my Executive Producer.)
On the other hand, stamps are wicked cheap in comparison to many expenses. But conventions and workshops... Aha, don't want to think about that!