Category: Business

The Good, Bad, And The In Between Of Advertising Dollars Spent In 2018

Though it’s not quite the end of 2018, today I looked at what I spent on advertising my novels and non-fiction books over the past year.

My goal was to set a 2019 budget as well as to figure out how to spend less and earn more.

Where The Advertising Dollars Went

My yearly spending broke out as follows:

  • 43%     e-Newsletters (BookBub, Fussy Librarian, etc.)
  • 22%     Goodreads (ads and giveaways)
  • 16%      Facebook Ads
  • 14.5%   Amazon Ads
  • 2%         My own email lists
  • 1.5%      Other (in-person book fairs, promotional copies)

My royalties totaled almost 2 times what I spent on advertising. If I thought the ads generated those sales, I’d think that was well worth it. Who wouldn’t spend $1 to earn $2?

I’d also double it if I knew for sure what was working and felt confident I’d earn twice as much.

But I’m fairly sure some of these advertising dollars resulted in next to no sales.

Dropping From The 2019 Spending Plan

There is some value to new potential readers just seeing my book covers and tag lines more often, so I don’t feel any of my advertising dollars were wasted. And I learned a lot, as I wanted to experiment with new platforms if only to rule them out.

Here are the areas, however, where I don’t plan to spend in 2019:

Goodreads

In previous years I always had Goodreads self-serve ads running. While I couldn’t be positive they generated sales, my click-through rate for my Awakening series ads was usually 5% or 6%, which is very good. And when the ads stopped running because the funds ran out, I typically saw dips in sales.

This year, though, not only did my ads for my new suspense/mystery series (the Q.C. Davis novels) not get any clicks, the ads for my Awakening series also stopped getting clicks.

Q.C. Davis Mysteries, Book 1

Unfortunately, self-serve ads need to be funded in advance.

I typically put $70-$80 at a time on my credit card and let the ads run and use those funds. I renewed the Awakening ad campaign and started the Q.C. Davis campaign at the same time a few months ago. As most ads have gotten no clicks since then, almost all that money sits waiting to be spent.

So far as I know, I can’t get a refund (though I may check into that). Right now I plan to keep experimenting with different ads to see if I can get anything to take hold, but I won’t be adding any funds.

Goodreads also switched this year from allowing authors to conduct free book giveaways for paperbacks to charging hundreds of dollars for giveaways.

While I may have gotten a review or two from both paid giveaways I tried (one paperback and one Kindle), the cost seemed too high to me for the benefit.

Facebook

I experimented with Facebook ads during much of 2018. When I advertised the audiobook edition of The Awakening, that got the fewest clicks.

My best results were for Kobo in Canada for The Awakening, Book 1. But by results, I mean the click-through rate on the ads, not necessarily sales. I did see a little bit of a spike in sales but it wasn’t clear it came from Facebook versus other ads running at the same time.

Also, as I’d been warned, it’s easy for Facebook ads to use of a lot of your funds very quickly.

I haven’t ruled out trying Facebook again sometime in the future. But for 2019 I think I will skip it in favor of focusing more on the platforms in the next section.

Planned 2019 Spending

Amazon Ads

Not all my Amazon ads have done well, but most of them have an average cost of sale well below the royalty I earn. (Amazon’s dashboard calculates this figure for you and shows you the sales from each ad.)

Because the ads are generating more royalties than they cost and because it’s fairly easy to tell what works and what doesn’t, I plan to keep spending on Amazon ads. I’m aiming to fine tune and increase spending on those books and ads that are doing well.

BookBub Ads

By BookBub ads, I mean the ones you create yourself and that you pay for based on either the number of impressions or the number of clicks, not the BookBub Featured Deals. (With the latter, BookBub accepts your book or not and charges a flat fee.)

BookBub ad currently running

I only started spending on BookBub ads this month, so they are not in the percentages above.

While I’m uncertain if I’m coming out ahead with them, each day I’m able to see clicks for each ad. Based on increased free downloads of The Awakening, particularly on Google Play, I believe the ads are effective.

Also, because there is so much data, I feel confident I’ll be able to tell going forward which ads are working and which aren’t.

Finally, BookBub offers good options to tailor the ads. For instance, if you’re getting a low click-through rate on Kobo in Australia, you can turn off just that platform and country and leave the ad running for other platforms and regions.

Email List

I handle my writing email lists through MailChimp. The dollars spent on it are well worth it. I see the largest spike in sales when I send out emails to my lists.

In 2019, I plan to do more to provide value to subscribers and to draw in new ones.

E-Newsletters

I spent the most on e-newsletters. As a whole, I don’t think it was worth it. For quite a few I paid $40-$60 and saw only 10 or 20 additional sales, if that.

On the other hand, some were very effective. I spent over a hundred dollars on a BookBub Featured Deal for three countries. That deal earned me the money back in a day and generated a profit.

I also like Fussy Librarian because it includes an Audible link along with ebook links, making it one of the only ways to advertise audiobooks.

Part of my challenge this year is that I spent the most on e-newsletter ads for The Worried Man, the first book in my Q.C. Davis mystery/suspense series. But I defaulted to e-newsletters that worked well for my Awakening supernatural thriller series, which may not be the same ones that draw mystery/suspense readers.

I plan to try e-newsletters again next year. But I am going to set a budget so that I don’t spend as much.

Also, I plan to try one at a time when I’m running no other promotions so I can be more certain whether the e-newsletter is generating the sales.

The Year As A Whole

Through the year I felt disappointed with my advertising expenses and royalty income. The first was up and the second down.

Looking back on the year, though, I feel better.

I did spend more than last year on advertising, and some of that money didn’t result in sales. But I feel like I needed to try different platforms and track results to find out what works and what doesn’t. As I did so, I learned a lot about which tag lines and images resonate with people. Also what readers are most interested in my books.

As far as the royalties drop, it didn’t turn out to be as much as I feared. And I feel more hopeful that next year I’ll do better with what I’ve learned about ads. (I’m also hoping not to spend a lot of time recovering from breaking any bones, so cross your fingers for me that 2019 will be injury-free.)

That’s all for today. Until next week (and year)–

L.M. Lilly

P.S. If you’re free January 1 from noon to 2 p.m. U.S. central time stop by the Writing As A Second Career Facebook page. I’ll be sharing 2019 writing goals and plans and would love it if you’d join me and do the same. (Or just read, that’s OK too.)

3 Things To Think About Before You Write In A New Genre

Most writers read a lot, and many of us read more than one genre.

These days I mainly read suspense, thrillers, and mystery. I used to read a lot of horror and supernatural fiction. And now and then I read mainstream fiction and classics.

Liking to read multiple genres often leads to wanting to write in more than one of them.

But is that a good thing?

Before you switch genres, a few things that are worth thinking about:

Audience Size

At first it seems like a larger audience would be better. I thought so when I switched from supernatural thrillers and horror to suspense/mystery.

But a large audience presents its own challenges.

  • It’s harder to reach a very large audience because there’s no one specific place to go to find them.

Mary Higgins Clark sells a ton of books per year. So does James Patterson. Almost anyone who likes fiction has probably read at least one if not many of their novels.

Which is the problem.

People who love vampire paranormal romance will likely look for more of those types of books. They may join Facebook groups or like pages devoted to that type of fiction. Or search sites like Amazon, Kobo, or Apple Books for “paranormal romance” or vampires.

But a James Patterson or Mary Higgins Clark fan, especially one who only reads a few books a year, can simply wait for the next book. They’re bound to hear about it through an ad, a friend, or a physical book in a store window or on a shelf.

  • Lack of common interests, making it harder to engage in content marketing.

Content marketing means creating written content such as articles, blog posts, or short stories that you give away to draw in readers who might also buy your other work. This article, for example, can serve as content marketing for my non-fiction books on writing craft, though it’d be better if I sold marketing books.

But it’s hard to tell what might be a common interest of fans of major bestselling authors. Sure, Patterson fans might like other thrillers. But they also might just like Patterson.

It’s a little easier to guess related interests of people who like more niche genres.

An article about haunted houses or true-to-life spooky stories is likely to draw an audience of readers who like horror fiction.

In contrast, readers who like thrillers don’t necessarily read nonfiction about true crime, law enforcement, or real life suspense stories.

  • Many readers in popular genres only read a few books a year, and voracious readers often already read multiple series.

Readers who read 1-5 books a year probably stick with big names we’ve all heard of. And there are enough of those, at least at the moment, that there’s no need to shop around for a lesser known author.

That’s not to say there aren’t voracious readers in popular genres like mysteries. Many of them, though, already read multiple series by multiple authors. They’ll try a new author, but typically only when they want a break from existing series or if something truly catches their eyes.

In genres with smaller audiences, voracious readers are often more excited to find another author, as they may be having trouble feeding their love of that type of book.

The flipside of all of the above is that if you do get your books to catch on, you can potentially draw in a much wider audience. I gave copies of the first book in my new mystery/suspense series to my dentist, my eye doctor, and my podiatrist (might as well get something more out of breaking my foot this past Spring). They all not only read and loved it but passed it on to other people.

My supernatural thriller series, on the other hand, is one I only promote to people who definitely like that genre because many people simply don’t like that type of book. Giving them a copy is sort of like giving them homework.

So what if you have an existing fan base? Will it help you when you switch genres?

Readers Rarely Cross Genres

In a recent interview on the Science Fiction And Fantasy Marketing Podcast author Tammi LaBrecque talked about genre crossing. She said when she was young she read whatever she could get her hands on because publishers had no way to target readers specifically.

I had the same experience.

My mom had three bookshelves of books she’d bought in the 60s from a book club. They included everything from suspense to historical fiction to humorous essays. I read them all.

In addition, I used to simply wander the stacks in my local library and pull out titles at random that looked interesting. I wasn’t even looking at covers because all I could see were the spines.

Now, though, if you shop on Amazon you’re likely to see books that are similar to ones you’ve already read. Other platforms do the same. Because marketing is so targeted, and so many books are so easily available, fewer people read widely.

I love that books are easy to come by. But it also means your readers may very well not to follow you to a different genre, something I’ve been finding out the hard way this year.

Last year I more than doubled my royalty income from the previous year. I put out the last book in my Awakening Supernatural Thriller series and released two non-fiction books.

This year due to an injury and some other issues I wasn’t as productive. I did, however, put out the first novel in a new genre. It’s a suspense/mystery novel, The Worried Man, and I just released the second book in the series, The Charming Man, this week.

Given that I now have two more books for sale, I would have thought I might at least match last year’s royalties. After all, the previous series is still selling a bit and my email list has grown.

What I discovered, though, is that the readers who eagerly awaited the fourth book in the Awakening Series are not necessarily jumping right into my Q.C. Davis Series. Those who do so far have liked it, but there isn’t the same eagerness as there was for a new book in the past series.

This difference surprised me because I always thought of supernatural thrillers as a subset of suspense, thrillers, and mystery. I figured most people who read the sub-genre would read the larger genre especially from an author they know and like.

But the books are different.

My supernatural thrillers brought in the elements of ancient prophecy and philosophical questions about religion. They also were told from multiple viewpoints, quickly shifting from one to the next.

My suspense series is told in the first person, deep in the point of view of my female private eye type hero, Quille Davis. It’s still suspense and still fast-paced, but it’s a different type of suspense.

Interestingly, I’ve gotten more reader email in the seven months since The Worried Man came out than I did in the first few years with the Awakening Series. But so far it’s a much smaller reader base.

So does all this mean you should stick with your first genre especially if you have built a fan base?

Not necessarily.

Love What You Love

Story expert Lani Diane Rich often says of the fiction we consume that you should not apologize for what you enjoy. Love what you love.

I believe that’s also true with writing. Yes, if we want people to read what we write we do need to think about our readers. But it also matters what we feel excited about writing.

Most of us have or had other jobs that we don’t love the way we do writing. Perhaps we dislike those jobs at times but they pay the bills.

If you’re going to write something you don’t enjoy to pay the bills you need to weigh whether you might be better off doing that other thing for the money.

Of course, it’s not an either/or question.

The best advice I got on this point came from author Steve Barnes in a retreat group he led. He told us to think about writing as concentric circles. One is what we absolutely love to write and really enjoy, shown in the yellow circle above. The other, the green circle, is what is the most marketable. The place to aim for is where the circles overlap.

How seriously you target the overlap depends upon your goals.

If you need your writing to be a significant part of your income, you will probably want to aim for the K and M in the graphic above. If earning a lot and becoming well known is important to you, you’ll probably do your best to write all the time in the green circle.

On the other hand, if you have other sources of income you might inch farther into the yellow circle. And if you write mainly because you simply love writing, you can write anywhere you want.

There is a caveat to this, too. We don’t always know what’s the most marketable. Sometimes we’re surprised.

But if you aim generally for that overlap you can adjust from there depending on your goals.

That’s it for today. Until next Friday —

L.M. Lilly 

 

4 Reasons To Stop Saying You Don’t Have Time

We’ve all said it, probably several times in the last week or two — “I don’t have time.”

Most of us, especially if we’re juggling writing and another career, a job, or family responsibilities, feel like we don’t have enough time to do all the things we want to do.

In one way, that’s true. It’s not like we can manufacture more hours in the day.

In another way, though, it’s not accurate, as I’ll talk about in the first of four reasons to stop saying I don’t have time.

Reason 1: It’s True But It’s Not

When we say we don’t have time to do a particular thing, that’s only true in the sense that we can’t fit in everything we’d like.

But it’s also not true. Because at that moment we are doing something, even if it’s sleeping. We could choose to do something else.

As an example, imagine you’re working on a report for your boss that’s due in an hour. Your mom calls. She just wants to say hello. Even if you and your mom have a good relationship, you’ll probably say, “I don’t have time to talk.”

Now imagine instead your sister calls. She says your mom had a terrible accident. She needs a blood transplant, and you are her blood type.

Do you tell her you don’t have time to help?

No. You tell your boss you need more time for the report and leave to go to the hospital.

You literally have the same amount of time in both scenarios. Your report is due in an hour in both. Yet you make a different decision.

I can hear you telling me to hold on.

In the first example, your boss will be very unhappy with you and might fire you while in the second, assuming your boss is a reasonable person, there will likely be no negative consequences. Or you’ll deal with getting fired if you must, as your mom’s life matters more.

But the difference is consequences and what matters most to you, not time.

In the first scenario, it’s accurate to say, “I have a report due in an hour, so now isn’t the best time for me to talk.” Not “I don’t have time.”

This change may not matter to the person to whom you say it. That person understands what you mean.

But, as we’ll talk about below, it does matter to how you feel and the choices you make.

Reason 2: It Makes You Feel Out Of Control

If you say “I don’t have time” and believe it, it leaves you feeling like you have no control over your life. Sometimes it’s as if we’re careening from one crisis or responsibility to the next with no say in how we spend our time.

I felt that way often when I was practicing law full time at a large law firm and writing on the side. That feeling intensified when my dad was in the hospital. Every waking minute was spoken for. And when I looked ahead, I didn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.

On the one hand, the busy law practice was great. It meant I had lots of cases and clients and no trouble paying my bills. I also had job security. Loads of it, despite a recession on the horizon.

But it also meant I had very little time to write, relax, or be with family or friends, and I felt as if I never would. That made me sad and angry, on top of how I already felt about my dad’s injuries, which were life-threatening.

Because I framed the issue as not having time, though, I felt there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t manufacture more time. Everything felt completely out of my control.

That’s not a place anyone wants to be. The good news is that changing how we identify the problem can help us gain control.

Reasons 3: Values Matter More Than Time

As the examples about your mom show, what we value governs our lives and how we spend our time. When we choose words that reflect that, we can decide what to do based on those values rather than feeling helpless.

That one change may not give us every option we’d like, but it gives us more than when we blamed time.

As to the work situation I described, I became more honest with myself. I’d chosen to work where I did knowing the schedule that was expected. I wanted to quickly gain experience as an attorney. I also wanted to earn the salary I did.

For the first five years or so that trade off seemed worth it. That was especially so because I’d had times when I couldn’t work and couldn’t pay my bills due to a repetitive stress injury.

But now I more highly valued time to write, time to spend with my friends and family, and time to relax. My job wasn’t compatible with those values.

I’d been blaming lack of time for my unhappiness. The reality was, the structure of the firm where I worked depended on attorneys working excessive hours. Also, my practice area didn’t allow for a regular schedule. Though I did have some free hours, I never knew for certain when they would be.

That type of work situation simply no longer fit with what I wanted from life.

Once I understood that, I could deal with it.

Reason 4: It Keeps You From Changing

So how does refraining from saying “I don’t have time” and focusing on values change anything?

Even if your situation can’t immediately be changed, identifying and talking about it accurately allows you to think long-term and figure out what to do.

For me, talking about values rather than time wouldn’t make my dad recover or heal. In the short term it wouldn’t change my schedule. (Unless I wanted to quit my job on a moment’s notice, and I didn’t. I still valued paying my bills!)

But in the long term, accurately identifying the issue as a values conflict gave me back choice and control. I devoted an hour or two each month over the next year to figuring out what I could do for work instead. Eventually I did change my work situation by starting my own law practice. A few years later, I published my first novel.

(Unfortunately, to a large extent I recreated much of what I’d left and had to relearn some lessons the hard way, but that’s another story.)

For a different example, let’s say you’ve got small children and are working a part-time job. You feel there’s not enough time to write the novel you’d love to write.

First, you’d look at your values.

Cramming writing a novel into your schedule might add too much stress to your already stressful life. For your mental and emotional health, you might need to value peace of mind more than writing. Or you might feel strongly that writing a novel would take too much time away from your children, and you’re not willing to do that.

If either or both are true, you might decide you won’t devote significant time to writing until three years from now when your kids start school.

Having decided that, you can stop blaming time and feeling out of control. And you can start looking for ways to satisfy your desire to write.

That might mean writing a poem here and there. Or starting a journal. Or you could carve out fifteen minutes whenever possible to plan that novel so that once the kids are in school, you’ll hit the ground running. (For ideas on that, see Writing A Novel 15 Minutes At A Time.)

None of that gets your novel written this year. But you’ll feel better because you’re moving toward your goal and acting in a way that’s consistent with what you value most.

Also, you’ll stop feeling like you have no control, so you’ll be calmer and happier. Which might make it easier to free up those fifteen minutes here and there.

That’s all for today. Until next Friday when I’ll talk about Using Your Writing Skills To Become Happier—

L.M. Lilly

6 Reasons To Create An Author Video

Last week I created my first author video. I thought it would be fun to do and fun for fans to watch. I also hoped it would be useful to other authors, as it’s about cover design and rebranding.

Before that, the only video I had on YouTube was one a friend who does PR recorded for me.

Creating the video got me thinking about the value of author videos and how they can best be used. Questions I ought to have asked before creating my own, I admit, but sometimes it’s worth it to just jump in.

Why Create An Author Video?

I didn’t decide to do a video out of nowhere, despite what I said above.

In the last year I’ve attended several business-focused writing conferences. Many ways to grow your audience were discussed, including videos.

Having Fun With Author Videos

Most speakers talked about videos as a way to connect with existing fans.

That seems to me to be the second best reason to create an author video, the first being that it’s something you think you’d enjoy doing. If it’s not fun for you, you probably won’t connect with anyone.

I like sharing information with others.

Usually I do it in person through teaching or speaking. Video seemed like a fun way to do the same in a way that could live on after the presentation was over.

Connecting With Existing Readers Through An Author Video

When I searched for videos by some of my favorite authors, connecting with current readers seemed to be the main goal. And it worked.

Despite that I’d meant to only take a quick look for research purposes, I watched these videos all the way through:

  • Sara Paretsky’s video on how and why she created her female private eye V.I. Warshawski (I also tweeted about it on Twitter)
  • Louise Penny talking about her struggles with alcoholism, stopping drinking and starting to write, having writer’s block, her marriage and how supportive her husband was, her husband’s dementia, and her road to success as an author
  • Kevin O’Brien being interviewed about being a nice guy and writing frightening books and his writing process

Reconnecting With Readers

The question is, if your fan base isn’t that large, is it still worth doing videos?

I think the answer is yes.

For one thing, whether you have twenty or two thousand (or two hundred thousand) people on your email list, those who enjoy watching video and would like to know more about your books will appreciate it. (Those who don’t won’t check out the video, so it’s not as if you’re risking alienating them somehow.)

For another, someone may have loved one of your books but read it some time ago and not realized you have new material out.

A video is a nice way to draw attention to your on-going work without shouting “buy my next book” from the rooftops.

That’s part of why my first video talked about rebranding the covers for my Awakening series. Within it, it made sense to show the old and new covers for each of the four books and share a little about each.

Readers who read Book 1 before the others came out may come across it and become reacquainted with the series.

Author Videos Can Be Shared

Videos are easily shareable. If a watcher finds it interesting, that person can easily click and share on social media.

Author Videos Make Your Website More Compelling

In addition, videos add content to your website. (Says the author who hasn’t added her video to either of her websites yet.)

It’s something different for people to do when they visit your site and may keep them around longer. Many people now expect to find video when they visit a site. It’s part of how we learn about products and people or become educated on topics.

Reaching New Readers And Viewers With An Author Video

Finally, there is a potential to reach new readers and viewers who might otherwise never find you.

Just as some people will rarely or never go on YouTube and watch a video, others rarely or never read articles or blog posts. That’s part of why I aimed my first video both at Awakening fans and other authors who might be thinking about rebranding their covers.

Since you’re reading this, if cover design matters to you, I assume you might also consider reading (or have already read) the article Your Book Will Be Judged By Its Cover on this site.

But authors who mainly consume content through videos will likely never come across that article. The video is a way to reach them and offer content they might be able to use in the format they prefer.

That’s all for today. Except here’s the video:

Until next Friday, when I’ll talk about 4 Reasons To Stop Saying You Don’t Have Time—

L.M. Lilly

Writing And Missing Teamwork

The last few days I’ve been thinking about teamwork. As in, not having it.

These thoughts started a couple weeks ago as I finished my six-article series on things to figure out before you shift to writing full time. The feeling that I was overlooking an issue of my own kept nagging me.

Yet as I reviewed my articles it seemed like I’d covered everything major.

Fun With Podcasting

The feeling that I was missing something came to me most when I listened to podcasts. I felt envious.

For a while I thought it was because I wanted to start a podcast. I even had an idea for one.

Writing about women protagonists matters to me, and it bugs me that so many movies relegate women to little more than walk on roles. Also that women are usually shown in isolation from other women, interacting only with men.

But when I looked seriously at what was involved in producing a podcast, my enthusiasm waned. Already I have more on my plate than I want. I’m looking to scale back so I can focus on finishing novels and non-fiction books faster and spend more time figuring out what marketing and advertising is effective.

So I kept my idea but turned it into a blog series Women, Men, and Movies on my author website.

Doing that killed two birds with one stone. I enjoy what I’m writing about, and it gives me a built in, consistent topic every week for the author site.

Yet I still felt envious of the podcasters.

Too Much Time Alone?

I also thought it might be about spending too much time alone.

As I wrote about in 6 Things To Figure Out Before You Start Writing Full Time (Part 2 – Mental and Emotional Health), having enough contact with people impacts emotional well-being. But I feel like I’ve done all right with that.

I’m teaching two legal writing classes this semester, so I see students 2-3 times a week and have a faculty meeting every other week. I make a point to get together with friends often, and my brother just visited for a weekend.

Most days I’m pretty happy with my balance of hanging out with people versus quiet, peaceful solitude. So that didn’t seem to be the issue.

Working Together

As I listened to Jim and Bryan bounce ideas off one another on the Sell More Books Show, it finally came together. It’s not that I spend too much time alone, it’s that I miss working with people.

As a lawyer, while I wrote and researched alone, overall I worked as part of a larger team. We talked through arguments with each other. We called to analyze the ramifications of a new decision by an appellate court. We traded our written briefs back and forth and commented on them. We had strategy meetings.

Now, though, almost all my work is on my own.

No one else weighs in when I decide where to advertise a book or whether to rewrite my manuscript another time before sending it to a first reader. And there’s no one to go out for a drink or coffee with and talk about the day’s or week’s progress. (Or lack of it, which is when you need the wine.)

My friends will listen (more or less) if I talk about my writing or the business side of it, but those who aren’t writers don’t feel they understand what I’m doing well enough to comment.

And those who are writers can empathize but we don’t actually work together.

What To Do

It’s not that I couldn’t work with another writer.

Some authors cowrite books or articles. But that’s never appealed to me. I appreciate outside feedback from a seasoned editor or critic once at a certain point in the process, but I love writing my books and don’t want to share that task with anyone else.

And while I’d love to have someone to share the business decisions with, my writing income contributes something toward my bills, but it doesn’t support me yet. So there’s not enough for a partner or an employee.

But I’ve only just become aware that I miss teamwork, so I don’t expect to know what to do about it yet.

It might be getting my writing career in better order and more focused so I can add volunteer work or a board position where I’d work with others.

Or it might be finding a way to grow a writing-related business so that it eventually requires a team. Maybe six months from now I’ll know. Or a year.

If you write and miss teamwork, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Opinions, solutions, questions, concerns, what have you.

Until next time, when I’ll talk about rewriting your novel—

L.M. Lilly

6 Things To Figure Out Before You Start Writing Full Time (Part 6 – Habits)

One reason so many writing books urge writers to write every day is that it’s our habits–what we do over and over–that gets results, not what we do once in a while.

Or, as Napoleon Hill said, “…you are what your habits make you. And you can choose your habits.” (I was sure this quote was from Think And Grow Rich, but I finally found it in Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude, co-authored by W. Clement Stone.)

The habits below are ones that can help your writing career whether you write full time or not.

I found, though, that when I switched to full time writing, these habits became more important.

Plan Your Projects, Not Just Your Time

When I worked my first job as a cashier at a discount store, I got paid by the hour. Many years later when I became a lawyer, I billed clients for my time in six-minute increments.

That way of earning money gave me a great appreciation for the value of my time.

Because I had to track exactly what I did and what could be billed to clients, I also knew where my time went. (For example, I knew exactly how long I spent in the office on personal phone calls, getting a cup of tea, or chatting with the receptionist before lunch because I deducted that time out of whatever law project I worked on.)

The downside is that it’s been hard to get out of the habit of believing that hours worked = money earned.

Also, because I’d always needed to justify to clients the costs of any task I billed them for, in my fiction I adopted a more relaxed mindset of “it’ll take as long as it takes.” When I was writing on the side, that was all right. I didn’t need to earn much at fiction writing, or anything, though it made me happy when I did.

But to build a readership and eventually earn enough to live on through fiction means focusing on projects completed rather than hours spent.

So the first habit is to take time every six months to list the projects you intend to complete during that time. Then break down each project into parts.

At the end of each week and each month, check where you are on your project and see what needs yet to be done.

At first you’ll probably need to adjust some of your timelines. I’ve discovered I’m always too optimistic about how quickly I’ll finish. But you’ll get better at estimating over time.

Plan Your Writing And Business Time

Focusing on on projects doesn’t mean ignoring a time schedule.

Sitting down on Friday and marking which times during the coming week I’ll do what tasks to keep me moving toward completing my projects helps me balance the competing parts of being an author and self-publisher.

(Read more about this topic in Meeting With Yourself Can Help Your Writing.)

If you’re not already in the habit of doing this, give it a try.

You might fear blocking out your time will make you feel more overwhelmed, but I’ve found it sets my mind at ease and cuts down on time spent figuring out what to do next.

Track Marketing And Advertising

When I worked full time at law, if I ran an occasional ad and it spiked book sales a bit, I felt great. Likewise, if I submitted a short story to a publication and it was accepted, I was thrilled. It didn’t matter if it paid much or anything or had a huge readership or a small one.

Now that I’m writing full time, it’s more vital to me that I use both my time and money well when it comes to selling my work. At the same time, I still don’t want to spend endless hours tracking sales or submissions.

For ads for already-published books, I make a habit of recording the following in a spreadsheet:

  • where I purchased the ad (such as Fussy Librarian)
  • name and sale price of the book advertised
  • cost of the ad
  • category (such as suspense, crime fiction, self-help)
  • sales on all books (not only the one advertised) on all platforms 1-2 days before the ad runs
  • sales on all books on all platforms 2-3 days after the ad runs

When I decide to run an ad again, even if it’s a year later, I can see short term how the ad affected sales. If I want to get a sense of longer-term results, I usually go the website where I sold the most and see how the sales arc looks.

For example, the graph of Kindle sales for The Worried Man, which I released in May, 2018, looks like this for May through August.

If you already do this, you may want to dig further into moving averages for sales and return on investment. If you’re not tracking yet, though, this level of detail can be a good start and shouldn’t take too long.

For submitting material to agents or publishers, I track the following for a new work:

  • the name of the work
  • at least 3 possible markets
  • the date I send it to the first market
  • the date I get a response
  • what the response said
  • if it sells, the amount of payment, expected publication date, and expected payment date
  • (repeat for each submission, adding a new market so I always have three)

Using this chart, if I get a rejection, I already have another market to send to. Also, tracking the responses lets me see if there’s a theme.

Finally, it keeps me from forgetting about a piece of writing or giving up on it due to long lag times in hearing back from one or more markets.

Read, Read, Read

For a lot of authors, including me, reading often goes by the wayside when trying to fit in writing while juggling other full-time paid or unpaid work.

It’s easy to keep reading on the back burner when you start writing full time, too. After all, it doesn’t immediately and directly help you grow your reader base or write more quickly.

But a reading habit is great for a writing career:

  • It adds to our quality of life, especially because most of us became writers because we love to read
  • It helps us stay aware of the current market for the type(s) of writing we do
  • It gives us examples of writing we love (or don’t)
  • It exercises our imaginations
  • It allows us to explore other genres
  • It keeps us learning new things

Those are only a few of the pluses. You can probably write a dozen more of your own.

That’s all for today.

Until next Friday–

L.M. Lilly

 

6 Things To Figure Out Before You Start Writing Full Time (Part 5 – Physical Health)

Any sedentary job has health risks, but writing the bulk of your work hours poses some particular ones. That’s why I included physical well-being in this series of things to think about before writing full time.

The physical issues I’ve confronted myself or hear about most often from other authors include:

  • Aches and strains, including neck strain, shoulder and back pain, eye strain, and stress on just about any part of your body from remaining too much in one position or looking too frequently at a keyboard or monitor.
  • A step up from aches and strains are repetitive stress injuries (RSI). These types of injuries occur when we make the same motions, such as typing on a keyboard, over and over again. They also can arise from sitting or standing in the same posture for too long.
  • Weight gain from a lack of exercise and or changes to the way we eat when we write. Those changes could include snacking more often because we are home more or using food as a reward when we have something to celebrate–or a way to feel better when we get discouraged.
  • Overuse of alcohol. It’s easier to drink alcohol while working when you have no boss looking over your shoulder. It’s also easy to eat and drink without really thinking about it while you are absorbed in your writing. Finally, some writers find alcohol helps them relax and be more creative, though others find it dulls their writing or makes it harder to focus.

Below are techniques and habits that helped me or other authors I know. I also recommend Joanna Penn’s book The Healthy Writer: Reduce Your Pain, Improve Your Health, And Build A Writing Career For The Long Term.

Before you read on (you were going to, right?), a quick disclaimer.

I am not a medical doctor or health professional. Before making changes to your exercise, diet, or other health related habits you should check with your health or medical practitioner to be sure the changes will be good for you and will not create other problems. Also, if you try any of these suggestions, remember to tailor them to your own life or particular circumstances.

Vary Your Workplace

Last week in 6 Things To Figure Out Before You Start Writing Full Time (Part 4 – Where To Write) I talked about setting up a good place to work. You can look there for more on arranging an appropriate keyboard and screen height and other suggestions like standing or walking for part of your writing time.

No matter how good your set up, though, you can usually help your body by choosing a different place to write for an hour or two a day or a few times during each week.

For one thing, you need to get there. If you choose somewhere in walking distance or you drive and park a few blocks away, you’ll add some extra exercise to your day and you’ll sit less. If your home or your new writing space has steps to get in or out, you’ll add more stair climbing to your routine.

Also you’ll likely be sitting in a different position, holding your hands differently, and keeping your head at a different angle. All of these changes can ease your neck, wrists, eyes, and other parts of your body.

So if most of your writing time is at a particular desk at home, think about where else you might go, such as the library or a cafe. (You can find more suggestions on where to write here.)

Schedule Breaks

If you’re working another job now, you’re probably longing for uninterrupted time to write. Yet for your physical well-being, consider scheduling regular breaks.

You might write for 28 minutes and take a 6-7 minute break. During my breaks I try to look out the window at something far away to give my eyes a rest from close work.

Sometimes I do physical therapy exercises that I have for my neck and back, ones I can do while standing that don’t require any special equipment.

Sometimes I read a book for a few minutes. While it’s still close work, I switch position by lounging on the couch or sitting in an armchair rather than at a keyboard.

Create An Exercise Routine You Enjoy

When I shifted to spending most of my work day writing I had a hard time getting in my usual amount of exercise. Before that, I worked in an office a mile away. Every day, sometimes in temperatures below zero degrees Fahrenheit, I walked to and from my office. That gave me 10-14 miles of walking a week. And when it was below zero, you can believe I walked very fast and got my heart pumping.

When I started working primarily from home I lost those built-in miles.

So I purposely set up my routine to include walking. My business mailbox is about a mile away . I also teach classes (legal writing) at a school about a mile away and walk there several times a week.

I also do yoga almost every day for about 20 minutes.

It works for me because I can do it first thing in the morning at home. In my pajamas. And the stretching helps counteract the shoulder and neck strain I experience from writing so much. It also helps me relax.

There are other types of exercise I know from experience I won’t consistently do no matter how many schedules I create or promises I make. I hate running. I only ever feel pain with it. I’m not a fan of other types of bouncy aerobics. The only time I stuck with going to a health club was when I was a college student living at home and pretending I was going to mass every Sunday morning to make my mother happy.

You might hate what I love.

Maybe yoga makes you yawn. Maybe, though I will never understand it, you love running marathons. The point is to figure out what sort of exercise makes you feel good enough when you do it that you’ll stick with it, and figure out what time of day you’ll be most apt to include it.

The beauty is once you start writing full-time your workday schedule is almost entirely up to you.

Some questions to ask yourself as you try to figure this out:

  • Over the course of life which exercise types have I done on the most regular basis?
  • Am I more apt to continue going to a health club or class or to exercise at home?
  • What makes my body feel the best?
  • Do I prefer to exercise with other people or alone?
  • What ways can I work exercise into other parts of my life?
  • Do I have friends who also want to exercise more who might agree to a weekly date to exercise and visit at the same time?
  • Are there other things I can do while I exercise like listen to an educational podcast or plot my novel in my head?

If you can afford it, you might want to consider seeing a healthcare practitioner or exercise specialist (like a physical therapist or yoga teacher) to get exercises specifically designed to help you with whatever physical issues you have from spending a lot of time writing.

While it does cost some money, in the long run it can be less expensive if it helps you avoid more serious problems.

Finally, think about what activities you do that provide exercise that you simply find fun. Do you like playing tennis? Are you a skier or runner? Do you, like me, enjoy taking walks?

Plan Healthy Ways To Change Your Mood

It’s human nature that if we wait until we are celebrating or until we feel sad and discouraged to decide what to eat or drink we probably won’t make terrific choices. It’s easy to reach for things like cookies, chocolate, or wine.

Personally, I don’t think any of those things are terrible. But if we are reaching for anything constantly, it probably won’t be very good for us.

To help counteract that, you can choose a time when you’re feeling good and make a list of easy and quick things you really enjoy that will allow you a momentary celebration or that will lift your mood during a rough patch.

My list includes:

  • See a movie
  • Read a novel
  • Take a hot bath
  • Light scented candles
  • Watch an episode of a TV show I already know that I love
  • Call a friend I haven’t seen in a while
  • Play a song on my guitar

Whatever is on your list, pick out the things that you both really enjoy and that are, if not good for you, at least won’t impact your health negatively.

I’m not suggesting you immediately make radical changes in your eating and drinking. (Or that you never eat dark chocolate–I would never suggest that.) If you substitute a handful of raisins for a piece of chocolate cake on Day One you’re probably not going to stick with that.

I wouldn’t.

But if you find yourself having chocolate cake with fudge frosting every day, maybe you can shift to unfrosted brownies. Then a couple weeks later look for chocolate cookies that are smaller, and have fewer calories and less sugar and fat.

Or try the handful of raisins every other day, promising yourself the cake the next.

Likewise, if you tend to drink a lot of alcohol while writing or, in my case, black tea (which I know doesn’t sound problematic but it causes me a lot of problems with acid reflux and with insomnia) you can try drinking water every other glass or cup instead. You might not love the water, but you know when you finish it you can have another glass of the beverage that you really want. And you might surprise yourself by how much better you feel.

Note: I’ve never had to struggle with alcohol addiction or other substance abuse issues, which I’m sure is due to the luck of heredity and body chemistry. If you’re concerned about your drinking or use of other substances, you may want to seek professional or medical support to help address it.

Step Away From The Laptop

If you don’t already, just as you vary your writing place think about varying your writing methods to get more time away from the keyboard.

In recent years I have much more often written outlines or character sketches by hand and dictated first drafts. I also handwrite bullet points for articles I’m writing or advertising copy. Then I dictate a draft into my iPhone, email it to myself, and copy it into a Word file to clean up.

While that may sound like a lot of extra steps, I always do at least 3 or 4 drafts of everything I write. The only difference is now I’m doing one by hand, speaking one, and revising one at the laptop. Same number of drafts, but three different places that I sit and movements that I make.

Okay, that was really long.

At last, that’s all for this week.

Until next Friday when I’ll write about other habits that can help you reach your writing goals—

L. M. Lilly

6 Things To Figure Out Before You Start Writing Full Time (Part 4 – Where To Write)

At first, switching to writing full time rather than on the side doesn’t seem like it should require changing where you write (a topic already covered in Three By Three: Creating A Writing Space).

But what works well when fitting writing in around the edges of other jobs might not be ideal when writing full time.

Physical Comfort And Well-Being

Whether you sit, stand, or walk as you write, there’s a vast difference between writing for short periods a few times a week and writing many hours each day. If your keyboard set up, for example, causes pain in your neck, hands, arms, or other parts of your body, it’ll likely be that much worse  the more time you are in that position.

Two things helped me:

  • Writing areas that allow varying positions and writing methods.

If you usually sit, consider creating a space where you can stand at least part of the time when you write.

Adjustable desks are one option, but I’ve found the mechanisms for raising or lowering tend to break, so it’s more cost effective in the long run to have one sitting desk and one standing area. (I use stacked storage cubes for my standing “desk.”)

If you always type, try working somewhere quiet and private so you can dictate. A couple options are at home if you live alone or have a room where you can shut the door or in a reserved conference room at a library or school.

As far as how to dictate, many laptops and computers now have a dictation function, as do most smartphones.

There also is specialty software like Dragon Naturally Speaking. Or you can pay someone to type your dictation if you can afford that. (For tips on dictating, check out this The Creative Penn podcast.)

  • Experimenting with keyboard set up.

Having your keyboard and monitor at the correct height can ease the strain on your body. You can find advice on general rules (such as, according to WebMD, placing your keyboard slightly below your elbows and the top of the monitor 2-3 inches above eye level) on the Internet.

In my opinion you also need to experiment.

I love my desk, shown along the wall in this photo, but it’s far too high to place my keyboard on.

The table (which cost about $25) from World Market works better for my keyboard height, but when I placed my laptop directly on it I had to look down too much. I solved that by buying a laptop stand and buying a separate keyboard to place on the table.

Over the years I’ve also experimented with moving my mouse to the left, using a Microsoft Natural keyboard (which I found very helpful when my tendinitis in my hands and arms was bothering me), and connecting my laptop to a separate monitor.

If your budget is limited, you can use books or boxes as laptop or monitor stands. I’ve also used folded yoga mats to raise my standing height.

The main concern is not whether it looks good but whether you feel good when you write for hours at a time.

Avoiding Work Spread

When I worked many hours as a lawyer I rarely worked at home. I lived only a mile from my office, and I preferred to keep work at work. That way I didn’t associate being at home with working, adding stress to what little free time I had.

I don’t find writing stressful, at least not in the same way. So I figured I would enjoy the convenience of writing at home.

And I do. To a point.

The danger is that loving your work can make it easy to spread it through your entire life. For a long time I used my dining room table to write, watch videos for relaxation, eat, and visit with friends. I liked the view out the windows. (The view shown here is on a rainy day.)

But after a while I found using the dining table most of the day to work meant I always felt I ought to be writing. Or doing social media. Or watching classes on marketing.

So now I work for half an hour first thing in the morning at the dining table and then I switch to my home office. While I still occasionally work in my main living space, when I leave my office it’s a signal that I’m on a break or done for the day.

Writing somewhere other than home can also help this process, as well as help you separate writing time from writing-adjacent work like interacting with other authors on social media, taking courses online, or scheduling advertising.

You might choose to work at a library or cafe when you are actually writing and do the other tasks from home or vice versa.

Other People

As I mentioned last week when writing on emotional health, when I worked many hours as a lawyer I craved quiet time alone to write.

Now that I mainly write, I really value the hours when I teach because I get to interact with people. In the summer when I’m not teaching, I’m more apt to write in cafes simply to be around more people.

There’s no right answer for every writer as to where you will write best and how much contact you need with others. What’s best for you will likely vary over time depending on things like whether you live alone and whether your other activities bring you in contact with people.

But it’s worth giving a little thought to whether the need for contact with others will require adjusting your writing space if you switch to full-time writing.

Always The Same or Always Different?

A lot of writers ask if they should always write in the same place.

When I wrote on the side, I preferred to mainly write in one spot. It was a good way to divide writing from my other work and the rest of my life, so it helped me switch gears and focus.

There are advantages either way:

Same, Same, Same
  • The feel, look, sounds, and smell of a particular spot, whether it’s a desk in your living room or a corner in your favorite Starbucks, signals your brain that it’s time to write
  • As talked about above, it can help avoid work spread
  • It’s easier to design or create one space with your ideal noise level (or quiet), keyboard set up, lack of distraction, etc., than to create multiple ideal spaces
Different Spaces
  • Varying your writing space might help ease physical strain from being often in the same position, as noted above
  • Changing spaces can help break up your day, making it easier to write more hours
  • It might be easier to achieve whatever balance you need of being alone v. being with people, noise v. quiet, open space v. coziness, etc., if you move from place to place.

That’s all for today. Next week I’ll write more about caring for your physical well being when you write full time.

Until next Friday–

L.M. Lilly

6 Things To Figure Out Before You Start Writing Full Time (Part 2 – Health Insurance)

Last week’s article talked about estimating how much you need to earn before you make a shift to writing full time. This week will focus on health insurance.

Health insurance is something many people don’t think about in advance, but in the United States it’s often harder to get, or costs much more, than expected.

Because I’ve been self-employed for a decade, starting before the Affordable Care Act was passed, I’ve devoted a lot of time and energy to healthcare and insurance costs and staying covered.

I offer what I’ve learned in the hope that it helps you with what to think about before  launching a full-time writing career, but—here’s the disclaimer you knew was coming–I’m not a legal, financial, or insurance expert when it comes to health insurance or medical care.

This article is meant as an overview and starting place, not to tell you what you personally should do for your specific circumstances. Also, this post is mainly directed toward writers in the United States because that’s where I live, and it’s the health insurance world I’m familiar with.

Reasons Not To Skip Health Insurance

The Affordable Care Act requires most people in the USA to have health insurance or pay a tax penalty. Recent changes to tax law eliminated the penalty, but I’ve read that those changes don’t go into effect until 2019.

Whether or not you would pay a penalty, being uninsured poses significant costs and risks.

  • Even if you are overall healthy and haven’t needed to spend much on healthcare in the past, you can’t control everything in your life.

If you cross a street and a driver who is texting rounds the corner and hits you, it’s very possible you’ll suffer serious injuries. It’s easy for hospital bills to run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even for less serious injuries other medical care, such as physical therapy, is not cheap.  (I know firsthand from recently breaking my foot.)

  • Regardless of your past health and no matter how much you take care of yourself, you could be surprised by a serious illness or heart attack.

Your health insurance information is the first thing most doctors’ offices, clinics, and hospitals ask for.

Getting treated without it, other than at an emergency room, is a challenge. Paying for that treatment, unless you either have massive wealth or are completely broke, risks draining your bank accounts and sending a lot of your future earnings to healthcare providers.

  • If they can afford to pay, uninsured people generally pay the highest rates for healthcare.

Insurance companies have bargaining power because they influence so many patients’ choices of medical provider. As an individual, you have next to no bargaining power.

Also, quite often the billing office of a medical provider won’t be able or willing to tell you the price in advance, you just get a bill later and get collection calls if you don’t pay in full. (The exact words at my doctor’s office when trying to find out a price before treatment were, “Ma’am, whatever the charge is, you need to pay the full amount.” “But what is that amount?” “You have to pay it in full.” This went on through several attempts until I gave up.)

Where You Can And Can’t Get Health Insurance

Some options for health insurance:

  • You may be eligible for insurance under a spouse or domestic partner’s group health insurance policy. (You probably are not if your partner is self-employed.) If you are, there’s a good chance it will be your least expensive option or at least will offer the best coverage for the price.

It’s worth understanding other options, though. If your relationship status changes or your partner’s employment changes, you may need to find another way to stay covered.

  • Most full-time jobs include health insurance benefits. If you leave you will usually be able to extend that coverage for eighteen months under a federal law known as COBRA. (There are a few exceptions, so verify this with your employer.)

After that, you will need to find something else.

  • Since 2010, under the Affordable Care Act health insurers who offer individual coverage have been required to insure everyone regardless of medical history.

You can buy individual coverage through healthcare.gov. These plans are not government insurance (there is no insurance called “Obamacare”), but are individual plans health insurers offer.

Check into this well in advance. There are limited enrollment periods, but certain life circumstances (like a job loss or change) allow you to buy at different times of the year.

That means you can also buy an individual policy directly from an insurer if you aren’t seeking a subsidy to help pay the premiums. When the ACA became effective, I called Blue Cross directly because I knew it offered good coverage. I found the salespeople very helpful in sorting through all the plans and options.

A caveat:

In recent years there have been news stories about counties where there are no health insurers offering individual plans. This is mainly due to a lot of uncertainty about changes in the law and what payments insurers will receive. If your county has no insurers, your state or county may have a set up an option.

  • If you are or you become a student at a college or university you may be eligible for student health insurance.

But check the fine print. You may need to be a full-time student or to take a certain number of courses. Also, the insurance may or may not continue during times when you aren’t taking classes.

Some writers and artists I know have extended or enrolled in graduate programs relating to their art not because they want the further education but to stay insured.

  • Some voluntary organizations, such as churches or professional associations, may offer limited health insurance options.

Always check the benefits before you count on these types of plans. Some have waiting periods of over a year for coverage of pre-existing conditions and/or offer limited total coverage.

Also, every professional organization I’ve checked offers not a group plan but some sort of deal on individual plans. This means the coverage will be the same as what you’d get in an individual plan and typically won’t offer the type of insurance or pricing a group plan might.

I mention this because in the days before the ACA, many people mistakenly believed they could get covered despite pre-existing health issues through an organization like the Chicago Bar Association, AARP, or some type of self-employed network. Because such plans are individual plans, not group plans, that was not the case.

Costs Of Insurance And Healthcare

If you extend your current employment coverage through COBRA, your cost per month will depend on your employer’s plan. It may cost more than you expect, but in my view it’s best to take the paperwork and compare to other options before you turn it down. It may turn out to be your best option.

You can check out the range of costs on individual plans on healthcare.gov even if you don’t plan to buy through the website.

In some areas, there are a dizzying array of plans, so at first it’s best to use it to get a rough idea of costs. You can narrow it down later.

Most health insurers also provide an online tool, such as this Blue Cross Blue Shield site, to compare their plans.

A few things to keep in mind when thinking about costs:

  • The premium for an individual plan rises with your age and depends in part on where you live.

As a 52 year old in Chicago, my current premium for a fairly wide provider network (which still doesn’t include my doctor) with a $5,500 in-network deductible is over $650 a month. If I were 22 and lived in Springfield, Illinois, it would be a lot lower. If I chose a narrower network (see below) or a different insurance company, I could likely lower my premium.

  • Higher deductibles and higher out of pocket limits generally mean lower premiums.

When you budget, it’s helpful to compare the costs of a year’s premium plus a year’s deductible–and a year’s premium plus a year’s out of pocket expenses–for each plan. That gives you a better sense of the overall cost of each plan.

  • Wider networks, meaning more options for choice of hospitals or doctors, usually means a higher premium.

Search for a few hospitals and doctors in your area to see how wide or narrow the network is. Check on whether your regular doctor is in various plans. If you’re willing to choose from a smaller number of, or a different set of, medical providers the cost may be less.

Keep in mind, though, that you may not always be able to find the care you need within network, so at least eyeball the out of network benefits so you’re not taken by surprise.

  • Research the insurer to see if there are consumer complaints.

Some insurers are better than others about paying claims.

This may affect not only your bottom line but whether a healthcare provider will accept that insurance. Check sites such as your state government’s consumer website and the Better Business Bureau or simply run a general search for the insurers’ name and consumer complaints and see what comes up.

Quality Of Care

There’s an old saying in the insurance industry that when people shop for insurance they only care about price and when they use insurance they only care about benefits.

This can lead to a lot of problems, particularly in healthcare.

Writing about healthcare quality issues is a topic far beyond this article, which is already one of the longest on this site. But a few thoughts before I close.

When you’re choosing a plan, in my view it’s key to consider what doctor you’ll be able to see and at what hospital you’ll be able to seek treatment along with the cost. Even if you need to go with the lowest cost plan, being prepared in advance for what your choices will be will help.

Finding out when you’re already injured or ill (and so in distress) that the medication your doctor prescribed will cost $500 because you went to the wrong pharmacy or it’s not on the insurer’s preferred list can not only be upsetting  but can seriously harm your health.

If you’ll need to find a new doctor or hospital, look at how many options you will have to choose from. Keep in mind the number of options listed can be deceiving. My insurer lists quite a few primary care doctors as accepting new patients, but so far I’ve called seven of them and none were accepting new patients.

Also, remember that not all doctors and hospitals are created equal.

Do some research (online at the library if necessary) into the quality of care of the hospitals in the network. How does the hospital rank for patient outcomes compared to others in your area?

Also look at the qualifications of the doctors you may want to see.

How long have they practiced? Are they board certified in their area of expertise? Do they get good reviews on patient care sites? Where did they go to school?

The Future

If you follow the news you know that healthcare options and insurance options are always changing and not always for the better. For that reason, it’s wise to have a back up plan.

Many people, myself included, who sought individual plans in the days before the ACA were surprised to find no one would insure them.  I’m in overall good health, exercise 30-60 minutes a day, am the recommended weight for my height, eat a healthy diet, and don’t smoke. None of that mattered.

What mattered was that I had a blood clot a month before I opened my law practice. It was the kind that can’t kill you, and it requires no on-going treatment.

The medical establishment differs on whether it puts me at risk for the more serious type of blood clot down the road, but the insurance industry wasn’t taking any chances. I was turned down and had to buy insurance through a state plan (now gone) that allowed me to basically continue my COBRA coverage.

Another attorney I know got turned down because she went to counseling during her divorce nearly a decade before she applied for individual coverage.

I mention this so you’re aware that changes in the law could mean you can no longer get insurance even in you think you’re in good health. So it’s important to keep an eye on developments so you’ll have time to make changes if needed.

That’s all for today. Until next Friday, when I’ll talk about maintaining your mental and emotional health when you write full time—

L.M. Lilly

6 Things To Figure Out Before You Start Writing Full Time (Part 1 – Income)

For a lot of writers, including me, the most important goal is to write full time.

That may mean earning the bulk of your income through writing so you don’t need to do anything else or earning income in several ways but devoting most of your working hours to writing.

Either way, there are some stumbling blocks almost every full-time writer encounters relating to emotional, financial, and physical well-being.

Answering the questions below before you shift to full-time writing can help ensure happiness in your writing life:

Today I’ll talk about income.

Ups, Downs, And How Much Money You Need

Income from writing is generally more up and down than a regular job.

Even if you’ve been self-employed in another field for years, as I was, relying more on your writing income means shifts in the publishing world–from royalty rates to Amazon algorithms–will have a greater effect on your bottom line.

Knowing from the start how much you realistically need to earn and how you’ll earn it can help you weather the storms.

Before we go ahead, a quick disclaimer:

I am not a financial adviser, and this article is not meant to advise you about your personal circumstances. The information below is based on my own experience and information I gathered for my personal situation. You should turn to a personal financial adviser for specific advice tailored to your life.

Creating A Spending Plan

I like the idea of a spending plan rather than a budget.

A budget sounds limiting and makes me focus on what I “can’t” spend. A spending plan sounds more realistic and positive. You need to spend money to live, and it’s a plan for doing that.

There are tons of free worksheets and calculators online to help you figure out what you spend. I like Vanguard’s Retirement Expenses Worksheet. While you’re not retiring, you are making a shift (or hoping to), and many of the money issues are similar.

You can also find books in the library, bookstores, or online about budgeting. (I like Suze Orman’s books, including the 9 Steps to Financial Freedom.)

Here’s what helped me most when creating a monthly spending plan:

  • Track what you actually spend for 2-4 weeks.

Not what you hope to spend, but what you truly spent, including expenses you don’t expect to have every week like birthday gifts or car repairs.

  • If you use credit cards, your credit card company may offer you a list of what you spent the year before by category.

If you use an accounting program, you can run your own list. Both are good to compare to what you track and fill in gaps.

  • In your plan for the future, remember to include unexpected one-time expenses and average them out per month.

Home or car repairs, doctor or emergency room visits, family member emergencies, or traveling for (and/or standing up in) a friend’s wedding are all expenses you don’t expect to have every month, but you’ll almost certainly have one or more of them every year. Ignoring them while planning will leave you constantly short of funds.

  • Leave funds for non-necessary things you enjoy.

Much as you love writing, most of us need more than sitting in a room writing all day to feel happy. You may not mind spending a little less on some things, but it’ll be next to impossible to stick to a spending plan that cuts back on everything you do for fun.

  • Think about your future.

Depending where you are in life, you also need to consider planning for retirement.

Yes, you can hope, as I do, that your books will keep making you money as long as you live. But it’s possible they won’t.

Continuing–or starting–to put away money for retirement, even if it’s in small amounts, matters. If it’s something you’re not doing now anyway and you’d rather be writing than working at your current job, you may want to make the switch regardless. That’s a personal decision.

But be sure you make a choice rather than let the issue go completely. Think about when and how you’ll move toward a place where you can put something aside for your future.

Consider what you may need or want to pay for someone else.

If you have dependents, you’ll need to consider your spending relating to them. If you don’t, there may still be amounts you give to others. Do you help pay expenses for an aging parent? Donate to charity? Send your nieces holiday gifts? Take friends out for their birthdays?

Remember to include these things in your spending plan. If you plan to cut back, imagine how you’ll feel about that and be realistic about whether you’ll do it or not.

Tracking The Money

Knowing where your money comes from is essential to planning your full-time writing life. Let’s call it your Income Plan.

Make a list, chart, or spreadsheet of your current sources of income, whether you have one or many. Include all amounts high and low.

If you have a savings account that earned $10 last year or you get $2 a month from listing your ebooks on Kobo, list it. You may be able to increase those amounts in the future, so you want to have them in mind.

Remember to subtract business expenses from your business income.

If last month you earned $1,000 in royalties on three books, but you spent $500 total on advertising, paying your email list provider, and a new cover, you only have $500 of those royalties that can go toward expenses. List $500, not $1,000.

Taxes will further reduce what you keep in your pocket.

If you didn’t include income taxes in your spending plan, make a guess based on the last few years how much of your income you’ll need to pay in taxes and subtract it.

If you’re leaving a job to write full-time, leave the income from that job off your Income Plan.

Now let’s look at the future.

Planning For The Future

Unless you are independently wealthy, are already earning a large income writing, or have a partner who earns enough to cover expenses and then some, the income from you Income Plan may very well not yet cover your the expenses in your Spending Plan.

That means switching to writing full time will require educated guesses at how much you’ll increase your writing income or other sources of income once you have more time to write. While all of us hope that our writing income will increase the more time we devote, there are a lots of market factors out of our control that can affect that or make it take more time than expected, so don’t assume that if you double your writing time in the first year you’ll also double your income.

But first, look at your best case scenario.

Consider how much more you are likely to write and what you realistically hope to earn. It’ll inspire you and help you move forward.

Second, consider the worst case scenario and decide how you’ll deal with it. For writers, that usually means you quit your job and your writing income either doesn’t increase or it goes down.

If you have a plan for what you’ll do if that happens, it will ease your mind and help you focus on writing rather than panicking over money.

Some questions to ask yourself when creating that plan:

  • Are there additional or different types of writing you could do that might earn you more money?
  • How quickly can you get a new (non-writing) job if you need to?
  • Is there freelance work you can do that will help pay your bills?
  • Do you have savings that you’ve set aside to use while you build your writing career and will you feel comfortable seeing your account balance go down if you spend it?
  • Can you decrease your spending in specific ways and still be happy? (For instance, could you downsize your home, find cheaper transportation, or grocery shop at less expensive stores?)

The answers to these questions will be different for everyone, and you may think of alternative ways to cover your expenses if your writing income doesn’t meet your expectations. But whatever your personal questions and answers are, thinking about them will help you decide when and whether to switch to writing full time.

Until next Friday, when I’ll talk about a key issue for any self-employed person: health insurance—

L.M. Lilly