Lisa Hendrix

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For my birthday last year, my former critique partner and very wise friend, Sheila Roberts, sent me a copy of START LATE, FINISH RICH by David Bach, the personal finance expert who appears a couple of times a month on the Today Show. There was nothing in it I didn’t already know, and yet I was using very little of that knowledge. But now, with books to write, two kids in college next year, and a house to spruce up, I decided I needed to put a few of Mr. Bach’s (and Sheila’s!) principles in place.

First up: Automating our finances.

You’d think a person on the computer as much as I have been for the past 20+ years (almost daily since, oh, about 1989), I’d have long since relegated every repetitive function I could to the electronics. But no. I’ve been a holdout. I’ve paid some bills online for a while, but I never bumped up to the next level and set up auto-pay.

Until yesterday.

I finally got sick of the whole bill paying thing, and now, almost every bill that can be on auto-pay is, and the rest will be as soon as the billing cycle comes around. I also put the recurring payments in my accounting program so I don’t forget about them.  Once all the auto-pay plans are in place and I’m sure the system’s working smoothly (my husband’s company pays every two weeks instead of twice a month, which makes payday shift around in an uncomfortable fashion), I’ll also automate transfers into  savings.

It doesn’t sound like a huge deal, but I already feel less stressed By my (top of the head) calculation, this will save me 8-10 hours a month in writing checks/logging onto websites, recording checks/payments, and general fussing with money. Plus I’ll never run the risk of missing a payment and the resulting late fee and interest rate penalty.  I heartily recommend it. You can find more from David Bach HERE.

Sheila’s a pro at making dollars go farther, too, and I’ve never seen anyone have as much fun as she does while doing it. She even wrote about three friends who had to make over their finances in her book, SMALL CHANGE. Check out her blog and newsletter for her tips for living like a millionaire on a dime store budget.

What do you think? Do you use auto-pay, and if so, how is it working for you?

Lisa

A writer’s education consists of more than going to monthly chapter meetings or attending the annual local conference.  It means reading EVERY book in the 808 section of the library.  Twice.  It means buying a ton of other books and attending critique groups.  It means regularly reading RWR, Writer’s Digest, Romantic Times, any sub-genre rags like Beau Monde.  And industry, craft, and genre blogs.

It means attending the national conference or buying the session CDs from National if you can’t attend.  (The RWR–[that's the Romance Writers Report for you non-romance types] will list the CDs for sale just afterward.  Your local chapter may also buy a complete set.)

It means getting on-line with your chapter members or some other writer’s link or list where you can learn more about the business of writing from others.

It means getting your hands on whatever publisher guidelines are available and reading them.  It means reading romances, to keep up with what’s being published and by whom.

 More than anything, it means listening, listening, listening, not just with your ears, but with your brain, and absorbing every scrap of hard information that you can get.

Conferences:  Attending vs Volunteering

As part of self-education, I’d like to recommend conferences. Attending a conference is wonderful.  You get to hear fascinating speakers, meet your peers–and an occasional superstar writer–and chat with an editor or two.  You come away inspired, feeling recharged and ready to scream through the next chapter of your book. (I’m presenting at a great small all-genre conference at the end of February, the Whidbey Island Writers Conference. Come join us.)

Even better is volunteering for a conference committee.  When you volunteer, you often have the opportunity to WORK with the visiting editors, agents, and writers.  You find yourself in more situations where you can actually schmooze with these folks, and schmoozing is how you really learn about publishing as a business.  In the right position, you get to know people who may be able to affect your career down the road–for better or worse, so do a good job and present yourself well to them.  I met my first editor, Judy Stern Palais,  and Malle Vallick, who is now the Digital Queen of Harlequin (or some title like that) over the phone when I was doing materials coordination–i.e., begging books to give away at a a chapter conference.  The contact with Judy led almost directly to my first sale–although I obviously had to pony up with a good book along the way.  (I’ve told the story so many times…does anyone want or need to hear it again? If so, let me know in comments.)

As another example, NYT Bestseller Kristin Hannah told me that before she was published, she volunteered at an RWA National conference to babysit editor appointments–you know, stand outside and time the appointments, then knock on the door when the time’s up.  The advantages aren’t obvious, but what do you suppose editors do on their short breaks between appointments?  Go to the john, of course, but many of them also stand in the hallways and talk with anyone around them who doesn’t look like they’re going to throw a manuscript at them.  Like Kristin, at the time.  She spoke with several editors.  One of them–sorry, I don’t remember who–finished a little late and came out of her final appointment harried, hungry, and looking for someone to have dinner with.  Who do you suppose was standing there, smiling and handy?  Who got to spend an hour with an editor in private conversation?

Lucky Kristin, right?  In the right place at the right time.  Get real.  She made her own luck.  She put herself in the right place.

And that’s part of selling a book.

Back on January 1, I promised to start revealing my writing process, and I fully intended to do so posthaste.  Unfortunately, I totally underestimated the stuff that had to get done in order for my son to submit his college and financial aid apps, including the delightful Catch 22 of having to give the feds your tax info before you even receive your W-2s, aka FAFSA.

So now that all that’s done, and I’m diving into the fray with a fast draft, 280 pages in 14 days. This could give me the perfect excuse not to blog, but no, brave idiot that I am, I’m not going to use it.  Instead, I’m going to write a book in 2 weeks AND TELL YOU HOW TO DO IT WHILE I DO IT.  Actually, I’m cheating a bit (a lot).  To keep both my word and my sanity, I’ll be trotting out parts of one of my all-time most popular workshop presentations. Over the next couple of weeks you’ll get bits of the infamous Nuts and Bolts workshop, presented at several NW writers conferences during the late 90s to much acclaim, but here spiffied up to at least minimally reflect today’s publishing world. And so, without further ado, the Big Question:

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SHOULD YOU BE A WRITER?

       Are you earnest?  Not, are you a character in an Oscar Wilde drawing room comedy, but are you truly earnest about writing?  This is not an easy business.

       Are you willing to lose sleep over a character who won’t behave?  Are you willing to let the kids wear their jeans an extra day?  An extra week, at deadline?  Eat more frozen food?  Give up frozen foods and dinners out altogether for six months to pay for that new printer?  Loose track of the vacuum because you haven’t seen it in so long? Grow to love your dust bunnies so much you decide to make them a bed of their own? Are you willing to launch your soul out onto the public market to be picked over, shot at, fawned over, spat upon, lionized, rejected, accepted, revised, and held up for both ridicule and glory?

       If not, give up now.  It’s easier.  It’s less painful.  It’s cheaper.  God knows, it’s cheaper.  That old chestnut about “all you need is a pencil and some paper” is a lie.  That may be all you need to get started, but we’re talking about selling.  Before you’re through, you’ll need a computer, a laser or ink jet printer, plenty of cartridges, and a good case of 20# bond.  (Yes, probably even if you plan to be strictly e-published. More about that later.)

       Anyway, I’ve sold and received the advances on seven books, and with conferences, new equipment, books, and workshops, plus all the miscellaneous expenses of research and promotion, I could still clear more working a minimum wage job.

       But then I’d miss the blank looks and snickers I get when I tell people I’m a romance writer.  And you can’t have all that and a dirty house, too. 

ADDENDUM (2/10/09):  Over on the Novelist Inc blog, Kathy Carmichael offers this relevant examination of another aspect of whether a person should be a writer, the ability to Conceptualize a Novel. Worth a visit.

Next:  Learn to Earn