This post by Livia Blackburne originally appeared on her site on 1/7/15.
So I usually don’t jump in on internet kerfuffles, but the recent blowup over Stacey Jay’s kick starter really caught my attention. The short version is that author Stacey Jay started a kickstarter for her next YA novel after her publisher declined to buy it. She factored in living expenses as part of the money to be raised, and got a lot of blowback for that choice, so much, in fact, that she ended up canceling the Kickstarter and apologizing.
I’m not the only person to weigh in. There’s a Roundup at Bookshelves of Doom. And I particularly liked the response written by Chuck Wendig and Laura Lam. So I’ll just share a few thoughts.
1. What is the biggest cost of writing a book?
My dad, a lifelong businessman, once asked me what my biggest cost was for a self publishing project I was planning. I started quoting a rundown of editing costs, cover artist quotes, etc, but he stopped me halfway and said, “No Livia, your biggest cost is your time.” And of course, he’s right. This is business 101, but somehow for writers, the idea of time being a valuable thing is counterintuitive.
Read the full post on Livia Blackburne’s site.