Sunday, September 11, 2011

Writing for a Living - Or Not


Being a full time author is the dream of many a writer. Recently, I quit a job that I'd been working at for 10 and a half years and kind of leapt into the abyss. Though my novel, The Time Baroness, wasn't yet selling enough copies to live off of, it was steadily gaining in Amazon sales each month since its release in April of 2011. I needed time to complete the second book in my series, as well as to spend time promoting The Time Baroness, connecting with readers, and networking with authors and bloggers. 
So, now that hubby's working almost full time again, I figured, it's time to devote myself wholly to my craft.Yet lo and behold, just days after I quit my job, before I had the chance to start panicking about money, I got a call from Queensborough College here in NYC asking me to teach a morning class four days a week. So, I readjusted my idea of "writing full time," and said yes. What's appealing about the job, besides the fact that I love the school and the people, is that it's an 11 week semester that ends in December, after which, several weeks later, a new one will start. It's not an endless commitment, and it will leave afternoons and a three day weekend for writing. Who could complain about that? 
Yet I do feel nervous that I won't get as much writing done as I would have without the job. On the other hand I'll pay bills, so that's good. I'd love to hear from other writers about how they manage working outside the writing field, or working within it, or only writing novels for a living. Is it the fantasy-come-true that we imagine or is it an illusion?
All the best,
Georgina Young-Ellis

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