[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: What do you tell authors who want to become career writers?
Desireé Duffy, Founder of Black Château, Books That Make You Podcast, and The BookFest® Adventure: Authors who want to become career writers should really look at their budget and make sure that they can do that for a time where they might not be making income. It takes a while to actually recoup your investment.
Being able to get an advance from a traditional publisher is the goal in that case. That’s what an advance really was all about. Those advances unfortunately are getting smaller and smaller and aren’t necessarily covering as much as they once did.
But the whole idea was you got the literary agent, they got you the book deal, the publisher said “Heck yeah, we want this book. Here’s your $100,000 so you can spend the next year writing it.” That’s kind of part of the goal is the publishers with that advance would be able to fund the author’s dream.
Nowadays that advance or the idea of it isn’t nearly as lucrative as it once was. In some cases it takes a while to make that back. And if you’re doing it the self-publishing or the authorpreneurial way or with any kind of a small press your advance might be minuscule, minuscule if anything.
Again, if you’re with a hybrid press or you’re working on your own, you’re the one who needs to be able to afford to live for a while. If you have a significant other, if maybe you’ve been able to save up a big enough nest egg so that you can do that for a year or so, that might be one way to to do it.
But I would just really look closely at your budget and your finances to make sure that you’re in a financial situation that can afford…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
About:
Desireé Duffy is the founder of Black Château, a marketing and public relations agency; Books That Make You, a Webby Award-winning multi-media brand that promotes books and authors through its website, podcast, and radio show; and The BookFest® Adventure, a biannual online event uniting book lovers worldwide.
A passionate advocate for spreading stories, Desireé serves as the executive producer for the Beach-Bound Book Bash, Jingle Books, and the Books That Make You Show. Her memberships and board positions include the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) and the Writers and Publishers Network (WPN). She holds degrees in English, communication, art, and marketing. Desireé splits her time between Southern California, Oklahoma, and wherever bookish events happen and booklovers gather.
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