Thursday 10 April 2008

Living the Dream

If I pause a moment and take stock, I’ve actually done quite well. I have over thirty books in print – one of which is selling three for two in Waterstones. My day job is earning me more than any of the other things I do alongside my writing and is actually very strongly related to my writing. It’s a life I had dreamed of – write and earn enough respect about that to talk to other people about my work and help them to become writers also.

The one problem is that I don’t have enough income and because I’m a Baby Boomer, I’m sitting between two generations both of whom need me financially and emotionally and even more globally. That happens in middle age, anyway.

I’ve looked for streams of passive income. For example, Adsense on this blog, my properties, and some work on the stock market. There are trickles. One trickle of passive income is made up of my royalties, and actually, they are better than any of the others There is very little cash flow in my properties, but they remain a good investment – something for the future.

So, it makes absolute sense. Concentrate on the writing. Give to the university that which is its, and give to the writing 100% of what is left over. I’m going to try it for a week – the week started yesterday, and I expect a miracle to happen. Watch this space.

2 comments:

AnneR said...

I know just what you mean, Gill... My oldest daughter will start university in 18 months and the looming bills are worrying. I finish my two year university stint in June, so it's back to all the income coming from writing. A bit scary, even though I did it before. It's scarier now as I've decided I won't take the dull lucrative stuff, I'll only write what interests me. I'll see how it goes - might need to set aside enough for a dog on a string and a pile of Big Issues!

Gill James said...

Yes. Interesting too. I've just been loking at Google Analytics on my five blogs. Suddenly, this one and Rozia are doing really well. Is this a sign?
I think we can have some success at anything we put our minds too, but it's all too easy to go for the soft options, which may be preventing us from making the real progress in the areas that really matter or even distracting us from facing failure or even success.
We're just coming out of a period of vast expense, and we've just about made it.It's not easy, but I still feel delighted when the writing goes right, and I'm happier about that than I am unhappy about the bad things.