Fair Pay: 6 Tips for Writers (and writing teachers)

Last month, as I filled my dining room table with receipts and mileages and 2022 credit card bills—all to prepare and file my 2022 taxes—I noticed a pattern.

Some of my expressive and creative writing workshops earned my regular hourly fee. Others were for a reduced, agreed-upon cost. Still others were freebies. And one was supposed to be fee-based, but turned out to be a non-paying gig.

Now that you’ve filed your taxes or asked for an extension, here are some been-there tips for getting paid for your time and expertise as a writer:

1. Talk money early: I’m proud to report that this math phobe is getting way more comfortable at saying, “My hourly teaching fee (or presentation fee or freelance writing fee) is $xyz. Does that fit with the organizational budget?” Saying this line and asking this question avoids wasted conversations and becomes much easier with practice and time.

2. Faux literary friendships don’t mean money: As writers, we often love to connect about just-read books. Or we swap opportunities or share experiences. But friendships aside, your time and expertise are just as valuable as other folks’ time and expertise. For example, that plumber who came to my house last year was a lovely fellow and yes, we had a grand chat, but I still had to pay him his set hourly rate.

3. Read and re-read your contract: This one is related to Number 2. Just because you’ve been hitting it off or chatting over the phone or email or even helping out with the event planning, don’t trust or assume that the hiring contract will be written in your favor. Avoid making naïve and costly assumptions. Read every line of that contract. Then decide if this event is right for you (see above about the surprise non-paying gig).

4. The author contract is about more than payment: Look for other, non-monetary items on that presenter’s contract, including audio visual equipment and the presence (or not) of on-site IT support or a delegated Zoom moderator. When you arrive at the site or digitally connect with your audience, you don’t want to invest your valuable time trying to get everything to work. Trust me on this one.

5. Time is money: If it’s a two- or multi-part workshop, ask if you will be expected to respond to students’ between-session emails. It’s fine if you do, but you need to know what to expect. For day- or weekend-long events, are faculty meals included in your stipend? Will you get reimbursed for accommodation costs or mileage? Again, don’t assume. For a multi-week or semester-long program, estimate your real time allocations—including prep time, teaching time, Zoom meetings, student email responses and other duties. Based on these, project your hourly rate. Is this rate financially viable for your budget?

6. Work for free? Yes, but be selective: If you’re going—or can afford to—work for free, make sure that the hosting organization’s mission aligns with your own values or interests. Or ask if there’s a non-monetary payout. When someone asks for a freebie, I ask myself two questions: (1) Am I being asked to work for free because someone has spent down (on other writers) or mismanaged their operating budget? Or (2) Do they really value my expertise, and this will be a mutually rewarding event or project?

The bottom line: Like everything else in our lives, choosing to lead a writing workshop (or do some business or grant writing or give a presentation or mentor a group of young writers) is a choice—usually a happy one. But remember: This is also time taken away from your own creative or writing time. So before you say “yes” to that freelance or programming request, think about what you need, what you can afford, what you’re willing to sacrifice and why.

That “noblesse oblige” thing? For those of us who have bills to pay and taxes to self-prepare, it’s a luxury we don’t have and cannot afford.

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Enjoyed this post? You may also enjoy:

“How Much Money do Writers Earn or Make?”

“What Questions Should You Ask Before You Lead a Writing Workshop or Retreat?”

“On Labor Day: What Your Day Job Brings to Your Writing (and vice versa)”

What are the Best Holiday Gifts for Writers?

Last year, the best gift under my tree was a packet of black, ball-point pens from one of those office supply mega stores. I mean “best,” as in, this was the gift that got me really excited, that I couldn’t wait to open up and use.

Gift Ideas for the writer in your life - most under $10

My ballpoint pens had that rubber padding or sleeve around them, so I knew they were going to be much easier on my middle-finger writer’s bump.

And yes, there is such as thing as a writer’s bump. Mine dates back to doing my leaving certificate exam at my convent school in County Mayo.

Among all the people on your gift list, writers are really easy to make or craft or buy for. Basically, we'll adore just about anything that will make our writing lives easier—particularly if, like most writers, we’re balancing writing with a day job and a gazillion other things.

Here are my 9 gift ideas for the writers on your list

1. Small, pocket-sized notebooks: We need them for those middle-of-the-night ideas.  You can find them almost anywhere—including at large, cheap retail stores.

2. A box of professional looking thank-you cards (or two): I love to send out hand-written thank-you notes to business associates, editors, friends, book-discussion group hosts, bookstore event people and others.

3. Pens: Many. Pens.  Did I mention pens? See my intro above.

4. Post-it notes and index cards: Many, many post-it (sticky) notes--preferably in different colors and sizes. Index cards are good, too.

5. Blank journals:  Journals are where we do our morning pages and rough sketches before the first actual draft of the essay or story or book. Plain, lined journals are best. Artist's sketch pads work nicely, too. 

6. Gift cards to coffee shops, book shops and cafes: These days, in the era of COVID, it’s hard or unsafe to write in a coffee shop. But the sun will shine in 2022, and we’ll be able to write at those outdoor patio tables again. Coffee- or tea-shop gift cards are a winner. So are cards for bookshops.

7. Packs of ear plugs: These work well when we're writing in a cafe or restaurant or on the train commute.

8. Gift card to a guest house, writers retreat or writing workshop: So far, my gift ideas have been modestly priced, but if you really want to indulge and delight the writer in your life, buy them a gift card to a comfy hotel or a writers retreat or a virtual writing workshop. Make sure that the use-by dates are open so your writer can book a weekend or week that works for them.

9. A day pass or a membership at a co-working space: This doesn’t have to be any place too fancy, and there are plenty of choices out there. Or, if you live in or near central Massachusetts, check out this shared space, The Mill River Writers Nook, which is designed by a writer for writers. It offers single passes and memberships.

Enjoyed this article? You may also enjoy these blog posts:

How to Write in a Café or Coffee Shop

What’s the Best Kind of Writers Retreat for Me?

Ditch that Messy Draft. Embrace the Blank Writing Page.

Should I write a new draft? Or throw my writing away?

Yesterday I decided to dust off an old, Thanksgiving holiday-themed essay. It had already been drafted and re-drafted, so (I convinced myself) it would only take an hour to edit, fix and pitch.

The essay was written in 2011, when I had pitched it to a popular Sunday magazine in which I had been previously published. Back then, the editor returned it with a nice note saying that it just didn’t work for that publication.

Today, thanks to eight years of editorial distance, I understood why my original draft got rejected. Plus, I love to edit, so I convinced myself that a nip here and a tuck there would make that 2011 piece perfect and ready for a re-pitch.

Now, after more than 20 years of writing and publishing, wouldn’t you think I’d know that re-writes are never, ever easy or quick? So this afternoon, after a few botched attempts, I abandoned that old draft to open an empty page to hand-write a brand new version.

Here are four reasons to stop twiddling with that old draft to start over with a fresh piece:

Our narrative voices mature: Since 2011, I’ve published (lucky me) several other essays and a full-length book collection collection of my essays. Our narrative voices change and mature, and experiences change or deepen our perspectives. We need to write as the writer we have become, not the writer we once were.

Updated facts, statistics and research: When it comes to fact checking or supporting statistics, many things may have changed since our last draft. So check and insert the latest data.

Publishing trends change: Publications downsize staffing or change their editorial focus and submission requirements. While we try not to write for a specific market or readership, it’s foolish to pitch or submit something that doesn’t meet the target publication’s submission requirements.

A new draft gives a new chance to go deeper: For today’s piece, I ditched the old typed version and wrote the new piece by hand. Handwriting helps our critical thinking and lets us find a way into what we really want to say. So turn off your computer and pick up that notebook and pen.

If time equals money, then, given how long we spend writing and drafting, we writers are always working at a financial deficit. But time also equals quality. So if you want to write what matters to you now, today, consider starting from scratch with a new page.

P.S. I just got an acceptance letter for this Thanksgiving-themed essay, from a good editor at a paying market.

On Labor Day: What Your Day Job Brings to Your Writing (and vice versa)

Once, during a job interview, one of the interviewers confessed that she had google-ed me.

Then, she asked me if, as a creative writer, I actually had time for any other work—including that potential job.

This wasn’t friendly small talk between two just-met strangers.

Instead, everything about this woman told me that she believed I was capable of short changing the part of my life that mattered (day job) to feed the other (creative writing and teaching).

She couldn’t have been rude-er. She couldn’t have been wrong-er.

Do You Have Time to Write? Do You? Really?

Hasn’t it happened to you? You’re so gob-smacked by a stranger’s question that, at best, you respond with something evasive or inadequate.

Then, hours or days afterward, when the cocktail party or the job interview is all over, you think of all those clever things you could or should have said.

After that interview, here’s what I would have said: For the past 25 or more years, it’s because I work a busy day job that I can be a creative writer. And vice versa.

I would have also mentioned that being creative writers makes us empathetic colleagues and how good empathy makes for good workplaces. Also, for centuries, big and medium-name creative writers have worked in all sorts of roles and industries and jobs.

So today, on Labor Day, if you’re a writer with a day job, let me assure you that your writing and your job don’t have to compete or detract from each other.

What a Day Job Brings to Our Writing

Money:  A recent Authors Guild study of $5,000+ creative writers (memoir, fiction, essays, poetry, drama et al) showed that, based on book sales alone, writers make approximately $3,000 per year. If you’ve figured out a way to live on that, good for you! But collection agencies make very, very poor writing mentors. Without a roof over your head and food in your fridge, you will not write.

Creative freedom:  When the bills are paid, we are not as susceptible to the fads and fashions of the publishing industry. We can say ‘no’ to those freelance gigs that won’t augment our portfolios, build our Curriculum Vitae and that will probably yield more headaches than fiscal stability. When the bills are paid, we can write what really matters to us.

Time and project management: A day job gives us dual experience in (a) meeting set deadlines and (b) planning and managing a roster of projects. Both of these skills will support and advance the creative life.

Tenacity: There really are no free lunches. So the tenacity and problem-solving skills we learn and practice at work carry over into our writing lives. A writing project has stalled? An editor or agent is ghosting? We need to be good at defusing disagreements, setting next steps and developing a workable contingency plan.

So wherever you work, this Labor Day, I hope you’re writing. Also, I hope you’ll take a moment to be grateful for what your day job gives you and, just as important, what it gives to your writing.

How to Get The Most out of Your Writers Retreat

I'm on deadline for part of a book and a brand new essay and oh, yes, I need to catch up on some emails.  So I did what always works: I packed up my notebooks, laptop, books, pens and sweat pants and booked myself a room at my favorite retreat for artists and writers. This is Day 3 and the last night of my short residency. 

I've been here before. And before.

Fifteen years ago, shortly after it was opened, I was one of the retreat's first residents, and now I'm a frequent flyer. I've come here in winter, spring, summer and fall. I've come when I've been under deadline, under stress, under duress and, once, after a family bereavement, in that underwater silence that is grief and loss. 

I've done my best work here.  I am my best self here.  I am equal parts productive and contemplative and have often banged out 60 - 100 pages in one long weekend (O.k., so during those mega-output stints, the personal hygiene is .. ahem .. spotty). 

Tonight, I just had one of those great writer-retreat conversations.  

Downstairs, at our lamplit dinner table, the retreat 's assistant director was marveling over how resident writers just seem to naturally and automatically respect each other's space--much more so than, say, passengers in an airport or guests in a hotel.  

"Do you think there's some secret or art to this?" She asked. "To being on writers retreat?" 

"Yes,"  I said. "Yes. Yes. and, well ... um .. Yes." 

"You're sure about that?" she teased. 

I laughed. 

There is an art. It isn't enough to just book a flight or plug the retreat address into your GPS and "head west, young writer."  Whether you're booked for a week or a weekend or a month, you will need to be ready and prepared to ... well ... retreat.   

Based on 15 years' experience (I also write about this in my book, "Writer with a Day Job") here are my personal tips:  

6 Tips For Getting The Most Out of Your Writers Retreat

1. Alone or with writer friends? This depends on the friends and what you're working on.  If you're collaborating on a project, then a few days away together works perfectly. But when you go on writer's retreat with a friend or friends, make sure to establish work time and socializing time and to stick to your mutual agreement. If you do go in a small group, respect the other residents (outside of your group). Unless you've reserved every single room, it's not your group's exclusive space. 

2. Writing materials: Pack what you will need (laptop, charger, thumb drive, printed manuscript with hand-edits, audio interviews, books, research notes). But leave yourself open to new possibilities, new sides of yourself. Bring a few paper notebooks and pens. Once you settle into this slower, complete-immersion space and pace, you may want to mix it up and try new writing tools and approaches.

3. Food: Unless the place includes a meal plan, pack some easy-cook or easily defrosted or ready-to-eat meals. Yes, it's fun to join in communal writer dinners. But you're really here to work, not perfect new recipes or waste time driving around looking for local restaurants. A must have: One ready-to-eat meal for that arrival day or night when you'll probably be travel weary and just getting unpacked and used to the vibe. 

4. Be open to new experiences, new people, a new way of being and writing: Especially if this is your first retreat, and especially if you're used to writing on the fly or snagging time in between parental or other family duties, the solitude may take some adjustment time. Be ready for that. Allow yourself at least one day to settle in. Resist the urge to call home and check in. Ditto for social media and email. And if you must check in at home, assign yourself one check-in time each day.  

5. Set a goal and have a plan: Yes, I know I said you have to leave yourself open and go with the flow.  But with all this unfettered, unpunctuated time stretching ahead, make sure you don't just waste these precious hours or days. Set yourself some goals. Have a loose plan for what you will accomplish by retreat's end.  

6. This is not like a professional conference: If you work a second, non-writing day job (and which of us doesn't?), expect a retreat to be very different from a professional conference.  For one thing, it's unstructured, non-instructional time, without breakout sessions or round tables or focus groups.  And for another, it's all about respecting your own and your fellow writers' space and solitude and silence. Although you may have fascinating or fun chats, the primary focus is on working, not NETworking. 

Are you extra or less productive when you write away from home or go on writers retreats? If extra productive, share you personal tips. If less productive, what does work for you?

Busy, Guilt-Ridden Writers! Write What You Can

Two weeks ago I attended an after-work spiritual retreat at Rolling Ridge, a  retreat facility and conference center that's located only about a half-hour from my office. It had been a hectic week, so I welcomed this chance to kick back, meditate and just generally let someone else do the talking or better yet, shush my brain altogether.    

The presenter began with a story about two monks--one older, one younger. One day, the junior monk confessed to his mentor how, as a neophyte, he could never seem to measure up; he could never be as pious as his elders. The younger monk said, "You get up so early every morning.  You seem to pray with all your heart and soul.  I could never hope to pray like that."

The elder monk smiled and said, "Why don't you pray what you can, not what you can't."

This advice really applies to our writing. It especially applies to those of us who constantly dither between our creative lives and our other responsibilities, including work. Honestly, there are weeks when I should get a golden gloves for all the jabs I take at myself, for how much I beat myself up over all that "I can't" do, or haven't done or failed to do.

In her inspirational blog for writers, Barbara Ann Yoder dubs this, "emotional self-flagellation," a state she finds counterproductive.

Barbara adds:

I think it’s important to acknowledge that jobs, relationships, cross-country moves, illnesses, and many other challenges can and do at times take precedence over writing.

For me, this "emotional self-flagellation" is often rooted in a monkish belief that only long-form writing stints qualify as "real" writing. 

Or, for another perspective, check out Lisa Romeo's writing blog, in which she also refutes that perennial advice about writing every day.

Lisa says:

But to my mind the most detrimental piece of standard writing advice is the one that declares that in order to be a *real* writer (whatever that is), one must write every single day, often amended to include that one must write a set number of pages or words, or a set amount of time per day.

Since attending that evening retreat, I've been trying to change my own thought processes.

On those days when I simply can't get 500 words on the page, I force myself to ask: What can I do?

Can I do a short morning meditation to clear my brain and develop a better and more creative attitude? Can I journal for five minutes?

journal

Can I switch on my laptop and just read yesterday's paragraph so that I have at least "visited" my work in progress for that day? Can I do a quick read-through and edit of the first paragraph? Can I write up a to-do list of what's left or outstanding in the work? Can I play a scene through my head while I'm driving to the day job?

By focusing on what I can do, I am actually getting more writing done--or at least, I'm staying more consistently engaged in the work.

And best of all, I'm on much better terms with myself--and this life called writing.

What on-the-fly, quickie writer strategies save your writing days?

Writers, Join this book giveaway by sharing your tips

This week I was lucky enough to be featured at The Writer's Place, a spiffy blog by writer Nancy Christie. Then, today, the interview gets included in Help for Writers.

I enjoyed the entire Writers Place interview, but I was especially charmed by Nancy's last question in which she asks for my "top three takeaways" (or tips) for balancing creativity with work (based on my book, Writer with a Day Job).

Here are my top 3 tips for balancing writing and life:

1.  Define your own path to writing and writing success. Comparing ourselves with other writers is counterproductive—even deadly.

2.  If you’re a beginner writer, create an overview of your month’s typical schedule and commitments. Circle the items that can either be outsourced or dropped altogether. Only keep those commitments that are truly, honestly as or more important in your life than writing. Even if you don’t use your freed-up time for actual writing, use it for writing-conducive activities such as reading, yoga or just sitting and staring into space.

3.  Learn how to say, “no.” When we do, people are not as miffed or disappointed as we assume that they will be. We fall into these “I should” and “I must” habits because —duh!— we’re not clear with others about what we need in order to nurture our talents as writers.

So you've got my three tips. Now, what are yours? Insert below in the Comments section and join my book giveaway. 

If we get 15 responses (each with your hot tips), I will enter all names in a random drawing for a signed copy of my book, WRITER with a DAY JOB. I will mail the book to the winner, so make sure to include a website or blog where I can reach you. Sorry, U.S. addresses only, please.

We need a minimum of 15 responses ... so ... pick and post your best tips... and spread the word  ...