There was a time when I didn’t tell anyone I wrote. I thought I wasn’t a ‘real writer’ because I didn’t starve for my art. Not only did I have food, I also had shelter, clothing, money for fun, and stability to give myself the mental and actual peace in which to write. My work-life-write views led me to believe that having a job made me less of a writer.
Then I lost my job.
I had a good severance and was in no real danger of starving or being homeless, at least for a few months. During the two months between jobs I had plenty of time to write, yet penned not a word that didn’t go in my resume or cover letters. The financial uncertainty put my creative drive into hibernation. I learned I cannot create without a daily routine and the security of steady work. A job takes time away from writing, but to not have a job takes away my ability to write!
Simply put:
Living requires money.
Writing requires living.
Writing requires money.
It turns out having a JOB did not make me less of a writer, but more of one. I am both worker and writer, and I am not less ‘real’ in either realm because of my participation in the other. Now I tell people I work with that I write and I tell other writers that I work.
What does this have to do with my indie publishing cost analysis? Everything.
I get by the same way you probably do: by going back into the office day after day, week after week, and year after year. I need money to pay for my mortgage, my car, my food, my pets, and for the materials to xeriscape the deadscape that is my front yard after this year’s drought. A financial venture of any sort requires cost analysis and budgeting, especially on what amounts to a fixed income.
Originally, I thought I would use kickstarter to try for third party funding. I got my beautiful sister to star in both versions of my book trailer, which was intended to be the kickstarter video hook.* I even started writing up the information I would need to submit to see if I could get kickstarter approval.
Image by Images_of_Money via Flickr
Then my husband did something amazing. He sold some things he no longer needed and went through our overbrimming spare change bowl and rolled all of that into usable amounts, saving even the percentage that would have been shaved off by going to CoinStar. He said he was going to use the money to buy himself something. Instead, he brought it to me and asked me to please use it to publish my book. I was touched by the purity of the giving and the honesty of his belief. My husband, best friend, and partner of thirteen years believes in me enough to be my backer, emotionally and financially. That’s a sort of security that even a steady job can’t bring; it’s better than money in the bank.
Yet, it literally is money in the bank. It is a fact and a financial boundary. The starting capital is the final piece of information I needed in order to apply my cost analysis and determine an initial indie publishing route. My seed money is enough to get me into the POD + eBook cost path. I will also be able to afford some targeted online marketing, which is not included in the original cost analysis.
This concludes my indie publishing cost analysis series. I hope that it has been informative. If you have experiences you would like to share or other perspectives on the endeavor, I’d like to hear from you.
*Both trailers are still going to be released as part of my marketing campaign & you’ll see, she really is beautiful!
STOLEN CLIMATES will be released in Kindle and Nook format as well as be available in 6×9 paperback via a POD provider – more details soon!
Aniko Carmean 