Writing is a funny pursuit because for most of us, even though we think of it as our “career” or our “work,” it doesn’t actually make any money. And yet we call it work.
(in case it’s not clear, or you’re finding this post via Google, I’m really referring to creative writing - fiction or essays or poetry - not to news writing or copywriting or ghostwriting or blogging, which of course does make money for many people, myself included).
Actually, instead of making money on my writing, I spend money on my writing. I write for other people or publications so that I can afford to pay for classes, editing and submission fees for my own writing. How absurd!
So this year, in light of that absurdity, I decided to calculate all my expenses related to my writing.
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Editing: $695 (this covered 4 meetings with my writing coach, and two editing packages
Submission fees: $144 (I submitted to 48 places at an average cost of $3 each)
Application fees: $110 (I applied for Tin House 3 times, got rejected 3 times, applied for Breadloaf and got accepted)
Contest fees: $50 (this is for three contests, all of which I did not win)
Writing classes: $275 (this is for a class I took at Literary Arts)
Online seminar: $540 (this was for a seminar I took through Literistic)
Coffee: $312 (this is for twice-weekly writing sessions at the cafe, at $3 per cup)
Grand Total: $2126
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Now that I’ve written this all out, and wasted forty minutes of my life going through all my submissions for 2019, I have to say that I didn’t think it was going to be that much money. Damn! That’s a lot of money.
Writing just doesn’t make any financial sense.
When I wanted it to be my “career",” that fact really ate at me. But now that I accept that it’s just my passion / hobby / “thing,” it doesn’t bother me and I am much more willing to spend money on my writing.
Because if you look at it like a business, losing $2126 is ridiculous. That’s not even factoring in my time. But if you look at it as a pastime, it’s not that much. I spent WAY more than that traveling in 2019, and on therapy, and on Barre class, and on landscaping my front lawn. I mean, in that context, the $2k I spent on my writing was probably the best investment I made this year!