Writer Mama Riffs on Raising A Writing Career Alongside Your Kids

By Christina Katz

Just about every writer is acquainted with other writers. Chances are good that you hang out with fellow members of the writing clan, even if only virtually, every chance you get. And if you don’t, then sister, get thee to a writer’s conference and start connecting with your fellow writers!

Full participation in a conference will accelerate your career by helping you:

• Learn about the latest industry trends and what the trends mean to your career
• Rub elbows with published authors, agents, and editors for networking
• Digest timely, relevant techniques taught by highly qualified instructors
• Make new writer friends everywhere you go

Create a game plan in advance, so you don’t spend all of your time there trying to decide what to do next. Like every opportunity you invest in, you will get out of a conference what you invest. So, if the best you can manage is to get yourself there and just show up, that’s good enough. But even better if you can sign up early (and get a registration discount), join the association (and receive member benefits), and study up on who is attending and what interests them (so you’ll be able to participate in conversations with ease).

If you show up with a large bag or backpack, a notebook, plenty of pens and don’t forget your business cards, you’ll be in a great position to get the most out of a writer’s conference, and you’ll leave feeling like your tribe of writers just got a whole lot larger.

In fact, if you plan to attend a conference, why not give your existing tribe of writers a holler, meet up and get some quality face-to-face time to share the wealth of knowledge. But don’t be afraid to stick your hand out, introduce yourself and make some brand new friends because you will have plenty of opportunities.

Most importantly, have fun! Writer’s conferences are a chance to relax and hang out with old and new friends. Be sure to schedule down time in your busy schedule.

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Christina Katz, author of Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids, is working on her second book for Writer’s Digest Books, Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform. She has also written over two hundred articles for magazines, newspapers, and online publications and has appeared on “Good Morning America.” Christina is a popular writing instructor who has taught hundreds of writers over the past seven years. She blogs daily at The Writer Mama Riffs and is publisher and editor of two zines, Writers on the Rise and The Writer Mama. More at http://www.thewritermama.com/.

By Christina Katz

Mamas, I know your life is very full and busy. So the last thing you probably want to spend time doing is a lot of picky, detail-oriented stuff like bookkeeping. But if you don’t get on top of your writing income and stay on top of it, then you are not running a business; you are dabbling in a hobby. And the IRS frowns on hobbyists posing as businesses.

So, ask yourself. Is it time to get serious about managing your writing-related money? Just say, “Yes.” It’s easier than you think, if you follow these three simple steps:

1. Get and follow quality financial advice. Have you considered hiring an accountant or bookkeeper to advise you on the latest changes in the tax laws and the best write-offs for you to take? That’s what writer mama Wendy Burt has always done. As for me, I prefer doing things myself. But I’m no accountant, so I use the Foolscap & Quill Writer’s Pocket Tax Guide by Darlene A. Cysper, Esq. Along with a tax preparation software program like Turbo Tax, which walks me through complicated deductions with ease, the two add up to an inexpensive, yet money-saving investment. And then I write both expenses off.

2. Keep everything until the end of the year, especially related to earnings and write-offs. This includes:
· Invoices, check stubs or photocopies of payments
· Receipts for the following: office supplies, office rent or home office expenses, office utilities, legal and professional fees, class and conference fees, postage and copying expenses, class and conference fees, computer and office equipment, software and books, subscriptions, dues, and annual fees, travel, meals, and entertainment expenses
· Also track: mileage driven for work

3. What to keep, so you don’t lose track of your professional progress. And be prepared to prove it, if necessary. These docs prove you are in business:
· Writing you submit, even if it’s not accepted for publication
· Copies of contracts, rejections and assignments

Finally, read this advice from Wendy Burt on how to plan for the long haul. The more you treat your writing career like a business, the more it will act like a business. Just try it and see for yourself!

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Christina Katz, author of Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids, is working on her second book for Writer’s Digest Books, Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform. She has also written over two hundred articles for magazines, newspapers, and online publications and has appeared on “Good Morning America.” Christina is a popular writing instructor who has taught hundreds of writers over the past seven years. She blogs daily at The Writer Mama Riffs and is publisher and editor of two zines, Writers on the Rise and The Writer Mama. More at http://www.thewritermama.com/.

By Christina Katz

The next most important investment that you can make in your writing career is continuing and continuous education. I suggest that you commit to continuing education as a permanent part of your career-at least until you have accomplished all that you wish to accomplish.

The reasons are many. Professional writing has three aspects: the actual writing, the marketing or selling of your writing, and the platform development or self-promotion that is a necessary part of any aspiring author’s career.

Unless you feel you have mastered all three of these areas, then continuing and continuous education makes sense. And here is good news. Education has become more varied than ever, thanks to the Internet. This means that you have more choices than ever, no matter where you live. The classes available today are more affordable and more specialized than ever, which means that you can identify exactly what you need and likely find a reasonably priced class on the topic.

This also means it is no longer necessary to earn an advanced degree, unless a degree is part of your long-term goals (for example, you wish to teach at the college level). Advanced degrees cost thousands of dollars, whereas almost anyone can afford specialized classes without incurring interest-bearing student loans.

Here are six ways you can continue your education inexpensively:

1. Take live classes at or through your local community college.
2. Take e-classes (email classes).
3. Take online classes (make use of an online classroom).
4. Take live workshops with professionals through your regional writing association.
5. Take live workshops with professionals at writer’s conferences.
6. Attend a live retreat or intensive with an industry insider you admire.

When choosing classes, always select instructors who “have what you want.” In other words, you may benefit more from a distance learning class with someone who is doing what you aspire to do, than you will from a local class that isn’t as close to what you’d like to accomplish.

Regardless of how you choose to take classes, the important part is don’t ever stop. The publishing industry is changing at a rapid clip and quality writing is only one aspect of writing success. If you want to stay in the game and be at the top of your game, keep learning!

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Christina Katz, author of Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids, is working on her second book for Writer’s Digest Books, Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform. She has also written over two hundred articles for magazines, newspapers, and online publications and has appeared on “Good Morning America.” Christina is a popular writing instructor who has taught hundreds of writers over the past seven years. She blogs daily at The Writer Mama Riffs and is publisher and editor of two zines, Writers on the Rise and The Writer Mama. More at http://www.thewritermama.com/.

By Christina Katz

When it comes to thinking about your writing space, the key is to think incrementally. Sure, you can start a nonfiction writing career with a basket or briefcase containing a pen, a journal and a magazine you’d like to write for someday. But eventually, you will look around and realize that humble basket has transformed itself like Cinderella’s pumpkin into a home office, complete with your bulging portfolio of published work, a CEO-worthy desk, an up-to-date computer system. And see those bookshelves over there, they have space reserved for your very own books.

Don’t get hung up on how much space you do or don’t have. In the same vein, don’t get discouraged if you don’t have the best, most up-to-date equipment. Don’t bemoan whatever physical circumstances you find yourself starting out in. Just make the most of what you already have with an intention to expand incrementally from here on out. Remember: What you don’t have today is a result of what you didn’t do consistently for so many yesterdays. If you want to change the outcome, change your actions…today.

I just posted in my blog about three writer mamas who took the circumstances they found themselves in, rolled up their sleeves, and dove in. When you go to their Websites and blogs, you won’t see all of the work that they’ve done, but you see a writing career that has definitely taken root. The space where you write is the place where your writing career takes root.

Specifically plan to reinvest a percentage of what you earn into the expansion of your workspace. Go ahead and pay yourself first. Most home office purchases are a tax write-off, so track every single receipt and consult your tax preparer. If you are a do-it-yourselfer like me, check out The Writer’s Pocket Tax Guide by Darlene A. Cypser, Esq.

I suggest you prepare for your future home office by putting down on paper what you’d like your future space to look like.

Is it large or small?
A quiet nook or a sunny room?
Do you like lots of bookshelves or clean, white walls?
A fireplace?
A comfy rocking chair or couch?
Will you decorate in a particular style or just with lots of color and panache?
What color are the walls in your office?
What computer will you use?
What software will you need?
What kinds of pens, pads, and paper will you buy regularly?
What email provider will you use?
When can you afford the fastest Internet connection?
Can your printer also fax, copy and print photos?

Think this sounds like a fantasy? It isn’t. I keenly remember what it felt like to want the office and income I have today. I remember what it was like in the beginning: the practically empty portfolio, the file cabinet begging to become full, the list of writers admired from afar, and most challenging of all, my confusion about the single next most important step to take to get to all of these destinations. Envision what you want and what you need and then, gradually, invest in it.

Because writing spaces don’t tend to be widely accessible or visible to the public, I usually study photos of artist’s studios for inspiration instead. Witnessing how any creative person claims their space will lift you up out of your present circumstances and into the realm of possibility. When you see a look you like in a magazine, rip out the page and post it on a bulletin board to visualize your future office. Look at it often and expect change soon.

Okay, now that we’ve dreamed a little, let’s get back to basics. What do you absolutely need in your office space to launch the business you’ve projected for 2008? Don’t balk and say you can’t have it. Why not skim a little bit from your grocery bill to purchase items a little bit at a time if you don’t have enough writing income yet? I once knew a watercolor artist who used this strategy and ended up with her art displayed in the Smithsonian.

Would a doctor launch a professional practice out of his or her car? Probably not. But you can, if it’s the only place you can find enough peace and quiet to imagine the writing space that you deserve.

Plan to graduate to something better soon and you will.

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Christina Katz, author of Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids, is working on her second book for Writer’s Digest Books, Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform. She has also written over two hundred articles for magazines, newspapers, and online publications and has appeared on “Good Morning America.” Christina is a popular writing instructor who has taught hundreds of writers over the past seven years. She blogs daily at The Writer Mama Riffs and is publisher and editor of two zines, Writers on the Rise and The Writer Mama. More at http://www.thewritermama.com/.

By Christina Katz
(From the January 2008 issue of The Writer Mama zine)

If there is one thing I wish I’d learned sooner about writing for profit, it’s that I needed to invest in my career in order for it to prosper. I’m not sure why I resisted this idea for so long. I thought I already knew how to write, so I should just be able to put those skills to work and make money wherever and whenever I wanted.

Seems sensible, right?

But prosperity doesn’t work that way. If you want to make prosperity disappear altogether, hold back or be too picky and it will evaporate like a puddle on an August day. In fact, I can trace the expansion of my success straight back to my willingness to invest in my career. Today my writing is still expanding and so, of course, I’m still investing, just as any businessperson would. Yet, because my investment has been gradual and in proportion to my income, the outlay has been manageable over the years, and so much cheaper than the start-up costs of most businesses.

In a 1989 essay for the New York Times book section, Annie Dillard wrote, “Write Till You Drop.” I’ve never forgotten what she said:

One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.

Don’t stifle your energy for writing before it even has a fighting chance. Instead get involved with or start up as many writing-associated endeavors as you can. Every drop of energy you spend on your writing and your writing career will come back to you tenfold. And sooner than you might imagine.

So, come on. Gather up however much energy you can muster for your writing career today and spend it! This is just the first investment you’ll make. I’ll explore a total of ten investments throughout the rest of the year. Spend your energy more strategically as you go and you will prosper. That’s what investing is all about.

What do you want to write today?

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Christina Katz, author of Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids, is working on her second book for Writer’s Digest Books, Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform. She has also written over two hundred articles for magazines, newspapers, and online publications and has appeared on “Good Morning America.” Christina is a popular writing instructor who has taught hundreds of writers over the past seven years. She blogs daily at The Writer Mama Riffs and is publisher and editor of two zines, Writers on the Rise and The Writer Mama. More at http://www.thewritermama.com/.