Think of this as a companion piece to the "Day in the Life" post here a few days back. Author Harley Jane Kozak talks today about money, contracts, and the work-a-day life of a writer.
I was offered a contract this week. Actually, I was offered two. After a year of writing “on spec” as we say in Hollywood, that was pretty exciting news. It’s not that I made no money this past year; there were those first two books, and I still get residuals for the acting work I did in my previous life (another six bucks for that 1986 Highway to Heaven episode) but it’s safe to assume that I spent a lot more than I took in. Would that I could say the same about calories.
So, when I sold a short story to Ms. Magazine, and was offered a two-book deal from Doubleday on the same day, I called my husband at work to tell him the good news.
“Great!” he said. “How much?”
I told him.
Silence on the other end of the phone.
I could hear him mentally dividing the book advance by two (two books in two years), then subtract taxes and agent’s fee, then add up babysitting costs, marketing and promotion . . .
“Can you ask for more?” he asks.
Answer: “Yes.”
The real question is “Can you GET more?”
she can…and she did. Check out the rest of her post on LIPSTICK CHRONICLES.
Great story. As a father of multiple small children and an aspiring writer, I sympathize with her.