Write Naked by Jennifer Probst

Author:Jennifer Probst
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: F+W Media

Exercise

Go read a craft book. One on your keeper shelf, or a brand-spanking-new one that teaches you something you need to work on or remember. Commit to this career and to learning craft all the time. Simply put, craft is essential if you want to be a long-term, successful author.

13

Your big pay day

“Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.”

—MARGARET YOUNG, FROM JULIA CAMERON’S THE ARTIST’S WAY

Let’s talk about money.

I remember my husband and I used to play a wonderful game. We’d pretend we’d either won the lottery or the game show Survivor. I preferred the lottery, since we had to do nothing else but buy a ticket and sit on the couch, watching our lucky numbers come up. I also knew I’d never win Survivor. I’d be voted off at the first tribal council.

We were kind of poor but able to pay the mortgage, current bills, and food bills. We didn’t have savings. A thousand dollars might as well have been a million back then, and tax time was the best time of year, because we always got a refund.

Later the refund would go to paying off credit card debt, which just sucked.

When The Marriage Bargain took off, I made money. A lot of money. And when the book sold to Simon & Schuster at auction, I made over a million dollars—just like in my dreams.

This deal propelled me into an entirely new universe. My boys had been using furniture donated by my dear friends. Back then, one dresser fell apart when you tried to open a drawer, but we couldn’t afford to replace it. Our house was tiny and slowly deteriorating around us.

I’m not telling you this for pity. There are tons of people who were way worse off, and I always appreciated whatever I had. I’m trying to make a point that I went from living extremely sparingly to having a million dollars in my pocket all because of my book.

We celebrated. We sold our house. We built a brand-new one like we’d always dreamed about. We bought a new car. And we gave away money to people in our family who needed it, which felt just as good as spending it on ourselves.

Let’s do the math, shall we? First, the tax man takes 40 percent. Then your agent takes 15 percent, which he or she truly deserves for brokering a great deal. That leaves you with $450,000, which is still an insane amount of money. Now, don’t forget that because of your success, you have had to hire an accountant, a lawyer, and either an assistant to help with the massive amount of work you just got hit with, or a marketing firm.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.