This lady wrote a confessional saying she’d been on a roll. Discovered what was really working for her. So she started watching the numbers and the stats and doing more of what was working. It was so much fun. That’s when it hit her, she said. Omg, she was being greedy. So she did the only thing that made her feel less greedy...
Today I saw my tenure on Medium come full circle. In June, I made less than any other month, but my first, since I started on Medium over two years ago. This does not worry me since I’ve published almost nothing there in the past few months. All things considered, averaging a dollar a day isn’t so bad. I’ve decided, just for yucks, to see how much I can improve on that in one month, this one. Wish me luck! It’s hard to keep ginning up the old motivation. If getting paid helps, so much the better.
Oh, I so DO wish you luck. I hardly wrote in May and June. Life was just so crazy. I am going to try get back on track in July, too. Last July was an awesome month for me. Hope this one will be, too. I wish us both luck!
Linda. This essay is …well, I don’t want to say it’s THE BEST, because you write tons of pieces that speak to your readers.
Yet this one…omg. It speaks volumes of truth. Practical and accurate. Yeah, THE BEST.
I hope this goes viral and that you write more about it. It’s a message requiring repetition.
Same with other writers, let’s speak up more and more on these useful points, these reasons why we can and need to do BOTH: what we love while getting paid for it.
I come from significant experience owning a business that involved discussions around the money topic. Working with women, among other groups, was a main focus of mine.
Other articles and a lot of research support what I observed.
Of course it doesn’t apply to all situations, to all women. But I must say, I saw and heard a lot of women speak this way.
Historically, society does not like it when women discuss money. Since this fact has been so ingrained both directly and indirectly in our culture, it still persists today. Maybe it’s a bit more subtle in 2022, but that depends. I mean, look at the piece you just referenced about “greedy”.
I observed so much of this.
*Women apologizing for being concerned about “making money”.
*Women beginning a discussion using phrases like “ I don’t want to sound greedy but…”.
*Women beginning a discussion saying “ I hope you know I’m a good mother but…” or “ I hope you know I love my children but…” The “but” was almost 100% followed by something like “I want to earn good money for my outside-the home-job.”
* Women, when referring to their daughters, stressing the money earned by a husband or boyfriend. Usually, no mention of the daughter’s contribution to external household income.
* Women looking me in the eye when I bring up their successful careers and announcing something like “ You know my husband is very successful and I don’t HAVE to work.”
* I will never forget an older and long term client, very representative of women in her generation saying, “ You know Kathy X, she has a successful law practice but you need to know, her husband tells her to keep any money she makes just for her own needs, that he will take care of her.” That statement was said with admiration and an acceptance of this as how things should be.
* A meeting at a conference with two extremely successful dermatologists, sisters, actually. They bragged about hiding anything they purchased in the attic for a week or two because their husbands (both successful medical specialists too, orthopedics, I think) didn’t want them to spend their money (the money earned by the sisters) without the husbands’ approval. The sisters described it as just the way it was, the way they got new purchases of dresses or stuff for the kids into the house. “ Oh, that isn’t new, honey, I have had it for ages.”
* ( one more and I will stop, I could go on and on. Yes, I will write about it elsewhere👍) Once, shortly after graduation from college, I was reprimanded by a senior person for (professionally and based on my early accomplishments ) asking for a promotion and raise. His words were, “ I don’t tolerate little girls like you coming in my office to talk about promotions and money, it isn’t a nice thing for you girls to be doing.” He didn’t speak, he yelled , he was that put out.
So yes, Linda. More please. We like your brain!⭐️⭐️⭐️👍😍
Right, Suz? When I was doing more website design, women would call me for info and then tell me they would discuss it with their husbands. Which is fine. Respectful and all that. But thing was, in YEARS of design I only ever had one man say he wanted to discuss it with his wife.
Money and women is a real thing. And add writing on top of it, because then there's the layer of the noble starving artist (that Dakota mentioned) on top of it all. You are right, I need to write about this more.
Happy 4th of July to you and Mr. Suz. I think I still owe you an email. It's my turn. lol
Jul 1, 2022·edited Jul 1, 2022Liked by Linda Caroll
I spent three and a half decades going to an unfulfilling job to pay the bills. Even then, it was barely enough, though I made it through. Now I am writing and want to be paid well for my writing. I spent so much money on courses to figure it all out, research and so many other things to do with writing. Also, I joined great groups with an admission fee. I have spent hours writing, hours burning my hydro, paid for utensils, like laptops, water for coffee and whatever else to feed my body while asking my brain to continue giving me the energy and creativity to write. And now you think if you get paid, you're greedy? How can you sit there and think all the years, all the time, all the energy we have used to become a 10 or 20-year-overnight success does not deserve money? How is this creative act any less important than baseball, hockey or football, or music or movies or even an botanist? I say live it up! But if you do not want to, why not just put my name on the cheque or e-transfer me your greed money?
Right? Same. Even though I work from home, I work for clients so the only thing that's changed is the location. I dream of not having to worry that a client turfing me will throw my life into a mess of stress. I don't understand that person who felt greedy for doing well. Not one bit. She can put my name on the cheque, too. I will happily relieve her of that greed cash. lol
The first answer that came to me was that it is related to the “romantic” (not) notion of the starving artist. There’s an idea that it’s somehow noble to suffer for our art. If we are making good money from our art, we must be sell-outs. I don’t know why the collective we of writers don’t feel that way about people practicing the art of medicine or carpentry or pretty much anything else. We’re an odd bunch. :)
Oh God, Dakota, that "sell out" thing just gets me. I should write about it. I think that whole noble thing goes back to the Victorian era and wow, it needs to die already. lol
Linda, I agree completely. If I read, "Forget about the money. Just write from your heart," one more time, I'll be tearing strips of hair off my head!
I've never hit a "sweet spot" while writing for Medium, Substack, Twitter, or LinkedIn. I'm not a blogger, article-writer, short story writer, or essayist. I'm a novelist. Wait. I WAS a novelist. Then Amazon pulled the rug out from all the ebook writers on Amazon.
Their new return policy is a policy killing royalties for anyone with an ebook for sale on Amazon. Buy a book. Read it. Return within 7 days for a FULL REFUND. Some writers are getting royalties statements with negative balances!
So why should I publish my new, finished novel when I might end up owing Amazon instead of them owing me royalties? Publishing my book, paying for advertising for it and my other KDP books, or writing the two books talking to me right now would be stupid!
Sorry for a slightly different rant, but I think they go together.
Will James Patterson see a sharp drop in royalties? I'm betting it's already happening. But he has royalties to live on! What about us?
Wow, Linda, that's really terrible. What was the return policy before the change? That's insane. I am so glad I'm not trying to make a living off Amazon. Wow.
Here's another one I see from writers: "I don't promote my writing. I'm not in sales. The right people will find my writing." Umm no, they won't. Being practical is not mutually exclusive with being passionate. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. Anyway, thanks for writing, Linda.
LOL, Right? Especially true for writers who are self published. They are not just writers. They are also publishers. Not that publishers actually market new writers anymore. But writers often think they do. So in self publishing, they are taking on that job.
Linda, I'm not sure about the previous return policy, but I'm thinking it involved how much of the book had been read before requesting a refund. Amazon knows how many pages of an ebook have been read. Now, it's clear that you can get a full refund even if you've read the entire book within 7 days.
I'm trying to find a publisher for my book--traditional. I thought I'd found the perfect one--Random House Loveswept/Flirt. Two imprints that cover every sub-genre of women's fiction. Ballentine is one of the imprints. They featured a book by Debbie Macomber. The description matches (in general) my book perfectly. And, they accept books already e-published! Perfect for me! When I tried to get to their submission form, the link was broken. Then I saw they're not accepting submissions. I also saw a note that they'd ceased publication of Loveswept and Flirt in 2019.
Story of my writing life.
I've had agents during my long career. Not one of them ever sold a book for me. I sold all 75, then the agent du jour read the contract and told me there was nothing she could change (for Harlequin). She got 15% of everything for nothing. I found out later from a publisher that everyone HATED her! Too pushy and always issuing ultimatims. She was the one who lied to me about my second book to Harlequin being SOLD, when it wasn't. That got me evicted from Harlequin, and my editor, too.
That was 1998. Since then, each book I've written hasn't fit category romance. Loveswept would've been perfect for me, since they publish "women's fiction with a romantic subplot." That's a good description of my books.
Throughout my 42 years of writing, I've been stopped by big problems. The newest just arrived. Having had surgery on my left hand, for Dupuytren's contractures (which made that hand smaller), then my right thumb joint being reconstructed (arthritis), I've just realized that my once-larger right hand is the same size as my smaller left hand! Dupuytren's has attacked my right hand, which means another surgery in the next month or so.
Maybe Loveswept will open submissions again. If so, I'll have 5 novels ready to submit, plus two more running around in my mind.
I'm hoping Amazon will get a million objections from authors about their new policy. I've already sent them my opinion!
Today I saw my tenure on Medium come full circle. In June, I made less than any other month, but my first, since I started on Medium over two years ago. This does not worry me since I’ve published almost nothing there in the past few months. All things considered, averaging a dollar a day isn’t so bad. I’ve decided, just for yucks, to see how much I can improve on that in one month, this one. Wish me luck! It’s hard to keep ginning up the old motivation. If getting paid helps, so much the better.
Oh, I so DO wish you luck. I hardly wrote in May and June. Life was just so crazy. I am going to try get back on track in July, too. Last July was an awesome month for me. Hope this one will be, too. I wish us both luck!
Linda. This essay is …well, I don’t want to say it’s THE BEST, because you write tons of pieces that speak to your readers.
Yet this one…omg. It speaks volumes of truth. Practical and accurate. Yeah, THE BEST.
I hope this goes viral and that you write more about it. It’s a message requiring repetition.
Same with other writers, let’s speak up more and more on these useful points, these reasons why we can and need to do BOTH: what we love while getting paid for it.
I come from significant experience owning a business that involved discussions around the money topic. Working with women, among other groups, was a main focus of mine.
Other articles and a lot of research support what I observed.
Of course it doesn’t apply to all situations, to all women. But I must say, I saw and heard a lot of women speak this way.
Historically, society does not like it when women discuss money. Since this fact has been so ingrained both directly and indirectly in our culture, it still persists today. Maybe it’s a bit more subtle in 2022, but that depends. I mean, look at the piece you just referenced about “greedy”.
I observed so much of this.
*Women apologizing for being concerned about “making money”.
*Women beginning a discussion using phrases like “ I don’t want to sound greedy but…”.
*Women beginning a discussion saying “ I hope you know I’m a good mother but…” or “ I hope you know I love my children but…” The “but” was almost 100% followed by something like “I want to earn good money for my outside-the home-job.”
* Women, when referring to their daughters, stressing the money earned by a husband or boyfriend. Usually, no mention of the daughter’s contribution to external household income.
* Women looking me in the eye when I bring up their successful careers and announcing something like “ You know my husband is very successful and I don’t HAVE to work.”
* I will never forget an older and long term client, very representative of women in her generation saying, “ You know Kathy X, she has a successful law practice but you need to know, her husband tells her to keep any money she makes just for her own needs, that he will take care of her.” That statement was said with admiration and an acceptance of this as how things should be.
* A meeting at a conference with two extremely successful dermatologists, sisters, actually. They bragged about hiding anything they purchased in the attic for a week or two because their husbands (both successful medical specialists too, orthopedics, I think) didn’t want them to spend their money (the money earned by the sisters) without the husbands’ approval. The sisters described it as just the way it was, the way they got new purchases of dresses or stuff for the kids into the house. “ Oh, that isn’t new, honey, I have had it for ages.”
* ( one more and I will stop, I could go on and on. Yes, I will write about it elsewhere👍) Once, shortly after graduation from college, I was reprimanded by a senior person for (professionally and based on my early accomplishments ) asking for a promotion and raise. His words were, “ I don’t tolerate little girls like you coming in my office to talk about promotions and money, it isn’t a nice thing for you girls to be doing.” He didn’t speak, he yelled , he was that put out.
So yes, Linda. More please. We like your brain!⭐️⭐️⭐️👍😍
Right, Suz? When I was doing more website design, women would call me for info and then tell me they would discuss it with their husbands. Which is fine. Respectful and all that. But thing was, in YEARS of design I only ever had one man say he wanted to discuss it with his wife.
Money and women is a real thing. And add writing on top of it, because then there's the layer of the noble starving artist (that Dakota mentioned) on top of it all. You are right, I need to write about this more.
Happy 4th of July to you and Mr. Suz. I think I still owe you an email. It's my turn. lol
I spent three and a half decades going to an unfulfilling job to pay the bills. Even then, it was barely enough, though I made it through. Now I am writing and want to be paid well for my writing. I spent so much money on courses to figure it all out, research and so many other things to do with writing. Also, I joined great groups with an admission fee. I have spent hours writing, hours burning my hydro, paid for utensils, like laptops, water for coffee and whatever else to feed my body while asking my brain to continue giving me the energy and creativity to write. And now you think if you get paid, you're greedy? How can you sit there and think all the years, all the time, all the energy we have used to become a 10 or 20-year-overnight success does not deserve money? How is this creative act any less important than baseball, hockey or football, or music or movies or even an botanist? I say live it up! But if you do not want to, why not just put my name on the cheque or e-transfer me your greed money?
Right? Same. Even though I work from home, I work for clients so the only thing that's changed is the location. I dream of not having to worry that a client turfing me will throw my life into a mess of stress. I don't understand that person who felt greedy for doing well. Not one bit. She can put my name on the cheque, too. I will happily relieve her of that greed cash. lol
The first answer that came to me was that it is related to the “romantic” (not) notion of the starving artist. There’s an idea that it’s somehow noble to suffer for our art. If we are making good money from our art, we must be sell-outs. I don’t know why the collective we of writers don’t feel that way about people practicing the art of medicine or carpentry or pretty much anything else. We’re an odd bunch. :)
Oh God, Dakota, that "sell out" thing just gets me. I should write about it. I think that whole noble thing goes back to the Victorian era and wow, it needs to die already. lol
Linda, I agree completely. If I read, "Forget about the money. Just write from your heart," one more time, I'll be tearing strips of hair off my head!
I've never hit a "sweet spot" while writing for Medium, Substack, Twitter, or LinkedIn. I'm not a blogger, article-writer, short story writer, or essayist. I'm a novelist. Wait. I WAS a novelist. Then Amazon pulled the rug out from all the ebook writers on Amazon.
Their new return policy is a policy killing royalties for anyone with an ebook for sale on Amazon. Buy a book. Read it. Return within 7 days for a FULL REFUND. Some writers are getting royalties statements with negative balances!
So why should I publish my new, finished novel when I might end up owing Amazon instead of them owing me royalties? Publishing my book, paying for advertising for it and my other KDP books, or writing the two books talking to me right now would be stupid!
Sorry for a slightly different rant, but I think they go together.
Will James Patterson see a sharp drop in royalties? I'm betting it's already happening. But he has royalties to live on! What about us?
Wow, Linda, that's really terrible. What was the return policy before the change? That's insane. I am so glad I'm not trying to make a living off Amazon. Wow.
Here's another one I see from writers: "I don't promote my writing. I'm not in sales. The right people will find my writing." Umm no, they won't. Being practical is not mutually exclusive with being passionate. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. Anyway, thanks for writing, Linda.
LOL, Right? Especially true for writers who are self published. They are not just writers. They are also publishers. Not that publishers actually market new writers anymore. But writers often think they do. So in self publishing, they are taking on that job.
Great idea! (Just don’t make any money on it!)😂
Lmao, Dakota. Or don't talk about it, I guess. lol
Linda, I'm not sure about the previous return policy, but I'm thinking it involved how much of the book had been read before requesting a refund. Amazon knows how many pages of an ebook have been read. Now, it's clear that you can get a full refund even if you've read the entire book within 7 days.
I'm trying to find a publisher for my book--traditional. I thought I'd found the perfect one--Random House Loveswept/Flirt. Two imprints that cover every sub-genre of women's fiction. Ballentine is one of the imprints. They featured a book by Debbie Macomber. The description matches (in general) my book perfectly. And, they accept books already e-published! Perfect for me! When I tried to get to their submission form, the link was broken. Then I saw they're not accepting submissions. I also saw a note that they'd ceased publication of Loveswept and Flirt in 2019.
Story of my writing life.
I've had agents during my long career. Not one of them ever sold a book for me. I sold all 75, then the agent du jour read the contract and told me there was nothing she could change (for Harlequin). She got 15% of everything for nothing. I found out later from a publisher that everyone HATED her! Too pushy and always issuing ultimatims. She was the one who lied to me about my second book to Harlequin being SOLD, when it wasn't. That got me evicted from Harlequin, and my editor, too.
That was 1998. Since then, each book I've written hasn't fit category romance. Loveswept would've been perfect for me, since they publish "women's fiction with a romantic subplot." That's a good description of my books.
Throughout my 42 years of writing, I've been stopped by big problems. The newest just arrived. Having had surgery on my left hand, for Dupuytren's contractures (which made that hand smaller), then my right thumb joint being reconstructed (arthritis), I've just realized that my once-larger right hand is the same size as my smaller left hand! Dupuytren's has attacked my right hand, which means another surgery in the next month or so.
Maybe Loveswept will open submissions again. If so, I'll have 5 novels ready to submit, plus two more running around in my mind.
I'm hoping Amazon will get a million objections from authors about their new policy. I've already sent them my opinion!