How to finance your writing career

FINANCE YOUR WRITING CAREER WITH THESE SIMPLE AND SAVVY STRATEGIES

You may not have the cash at the moment, and the economy may not be ideal, but that doesn’t mean your mind can’t be working on your ideas and creating the way to a better future. Look for opportunities in every climate. That’s leverage

~ Cassandra Gaisford

Many people dream of writing a book or making a living from their writing but say that lack of spare cash is holding them back. They prevent themselves from choosing what they want to do because they fear there won’t be the necessary money or support to allow it.

But money doesn’t have to be an obstacle to seeking more fulfilling work. Financing a career change, despite all the obstacles in your way, involves a conscious commitment to move forward, and a willingness to think laterally and pragmatically about a range of financial options.

There are many different ways to finance a career change including: consolidating debt, future-gazing and demand creation, career combo-ing, seeking investors, using equity, reducing outgoings, generating extra cash flow, and applying for funding.

The discipline needed to reprioritize your finances will be easier, and the sacrifices more bearable, if you allow your desire to drive you. Let’s take a closer look at some of the possible financing options:

Rewrite your goals. List all the benefits making a change will bring. These may include better health, more money in the longer term or improved relationships with loved ones.

Assess your current situation. Get an accurate picture of all your outgoings and expenses. Consolidate debt. Seek financial advice if necessary.

Get a reality check on your future plans. Is there a current or future demand for your writing? Could you create one? What is the true cost of making a change? Isolate costs against benefits: cash in against cash out. How much money do you really need to spend and create?

Earn more. Think laterally to create cash flow. A job doesn’t have to be a full-time thing. Can you finance your career by doing a career-combo, working in a variety of different ways or for several employers? As you’ve read, many people work at several jobs to earn extra cash.

Generate extra cash flow by increasing the money you earn. Some possible strategies include: negotiating a pay rise in your current position; taking on a new higher-paying role; or turning a hobby into cash flow.

New Zealand based, USA Today bestselling historical romance author Bronwen Evans, for example, took on a high-paying, high-pressure, one-year communications contract to allow her to take a year off so she could pursue her dream of becoming a full-time novelist.

Seek investors. Use other people’s money to create the momentum you need. Remember there’s good borrowing—borrowing to increase wealth, and bad borrowing—borrowing so you can consume more. Most people spend all their spare income on non-asset-producing consumption.

Banks, family members and friends are all possible sources of investment income. Sam Morgan, who established the on-line trading company TradeMe, convinced his dad to back him, and earned millions of dollars in return. You may not pay back millions, but if your idea is sound, your investors can sleep at night knowing they will be repaid.

Utilize equity. Burt Munro, whose story was made famous in the movie The World’s Fastest Indian, mortgaged his home. Could you use the equity in your own home to finance your career? If you don’t want to re-mortgage you could try asking for a mortgage holiday. Many banks allow 2–3 months of no mortgage payments.

As fashion designer Calvin Klein once said, “I took the risk of putting my money on the line for the company.” Are you prepared to do the same thing?

Share the load. Who else has a stake in your success? Perhaps they may be able to inject more cash into your joint cash flow or pitch in and share the family load. New Zealand romance author Leanna Morgan asked her husband to take on the day-to-day family commitments so she could focus on her writing. Today she’s a USA Today bestselling author who sells up to 300 books a day and has legions of fans in America. She’s also the CEO of her own publishing company. In just two years, Morgan has gone from an unknown writer to one who earns over $200,000 a year, allowing the mother-of-two to give up her job as a Libraries and Arts Manager to concentrate on her writing. She recently shared with me that her goal is to make a million dollars, and more, from her writing.

“If anyone had told me two years ago that I’d be able to resign from a job I loved to become a full-time writer and publisher, I would have smiled and thought they were slightly crazy. But believe it or not, that’s what happened,” she told journalist Anna Kenna.

“Her success has not been without sacrifice, including little sleep and less time with husband Tim and her two children, aged 12 and 17,” Kenna writes in her article.

“I’d be up at 5.30am, getting in a few hours of writing before work, and writing in the evening when everybody else was asleep.”

So she could devote herself to writing, Leanna’s husband Tim shared more of their responsibilities.

“Tim took over running the house and organising our children,” Morgan says. “He did it to support me, but also because he could see the potential benefits of my success for the whole family.”

Sharing the load, hard word and commitment have yielded success beyond her and her family’s dreams.

“It’s taken away the financial stress, allowed us to take a nice holiday and to look forward to a future we never considered possible,” she says.

Find out more about Leanna Morgan here www.leeannamorgan.com and read the rest of this article, including why it’s a brilliant time to be an independent author, here >>

Reduce outgoings. Review your current commitments and expenditure. Proactively look around to make sure you are getting the best deal possible on your insurance, mobile phone plans, mortgages and other regular financial commitments. Take note of your savings and squirrel the extra money away for a rainy day.

John shopped around for a better deal on his household insurance and saved himself over $600 annually in premiums. He also negotiated an installment plan with creditors so that he could increase his credit debt repayments, saving over $5,400 in interest charges annually.

Get funded. Many people and organizations offer sponsorship and various forms of funding to help people pursue their dreams. Without the help of a grant from Creative New Zealand, author Lloyd Jones may never have written Mr Pip—the same book for which he won the prestigious and lucrative Man Booker Prize. The book was later made into a film.

Check out crowdfunding as an option, as Heather Morris initially shared in the chapter Knock The Bugger Off. Her attempts to finance her film script lead to a multi-national publishing deal.

Multiply your income streams. When authorpreneur Kevin Kruse made the move to self-employment he decided to record his financial success, complete with the highs and lows by publicly sharing his income reports on his blog. There’s lot of inspiration for anyone about to embrace change here:

http://authorjourneyto100k.com/income-report-december-2015-and-full-year/

Like many business people, Kevin knew early on, that having a variety of income streams would help him manage cash-flow.

“I went into this whole thing knowing that to make the money I wanted to make I would need to diversify my income. I knew I’d need to spend time speaking, creating online courses, and marketing.”

It is a common and successful strategy used by many business people, especially those working creatively. Ruth Pretty, for example, is a chef, newspaper columnist, cookbook writer, wedding venue provider, caterer and cooking school tutor. The common theme? Her pursuits all center around her passion for food.

Amongst other things, photographer Carla Coulson is a portrait photographer, magazine photojournalist, tutor, and travel photographer. At the time of writing, she has retrained as a life coach and now offers creativity coaching and wellness workshops.

Italian designer Giorgio Armani has a flourishing clothing empire, a swag of luxury hotels, a music production company, and an interior design business. And these are just a few of his multi-billion-dollar revenue lines.

I am a self-empowerment author, coach, holistic psychologist, romance writer, brand manager, and novelist of art-related historical fiction. I also write marketing materials (blogs, newsletters, website content etc.) for small businesses, and train people to become certified life and career coaches.

As my writing income grows I’m making a conscious decision to spend less time in some of these areas and more in others.

You may wish to focus on one income stream, but if this doesn’t work for you, consider diversifying. This will help you ride any fluctuating financial currents.

Remind yourself that money is not a measure of your true worth. Clarify what’s important to you. As Richard Branson said, “I don’t work for money, that’s too shallow a goal.” Lucky for him his passion for having fun has netted him millions—as it has for James Patterson and other prosperous authors.

Whatever path you choose, be sure to work with love. Sonia Choquette, author of Your Heart’s Desire echoes this view: “When you work with love you draw others to you. Embrace this truth. The reason for this is that love is the highest vibration on earth. When you work with love people feel it, are helped by it, and return to it. That’s why love is the best marketing tool around. Because it is so attractive, it pulls right to you what you need.”

The Money or Your Life

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, once said, “Choose a job that allows the opportunity for some creativity and for spending time with your family. Even if it means less pay—it is better to choose work that is less demanding, that gives you greater freedom, more time to be with your family and friends, engage in cultural activities or just play. I think that is best.”

This really spoke to me and was one of the primary reasons I chose to scale back my successful international consultancy. Time is more valuable to me than money. I can always find ways to get more money, but it is impossible to find more than 24 hours in any one day.

Be careful what you chase. Is it more money, or a better quality of life? With planning, it just may be possible to do both says Timothy Ferriss in his bestselling book, The 4-Hour Work Week.

His central premise is to automate everything so you can live and work independently, free from a fixed location. If this is something that appeals to you I highly recommend picking up a copy of his book.

We’ll also dive deeper into simple but savvy productivity strategies in Book Two, of The Prosperity for Authors series, Productivity Hacks: Do Less & Make More.

In this book, you’ll learn how to work less and produce more, including powerhouse productivity tools you can harness to help you finish what you start, create new books and take them to market so you can sell them faster.

Mining for Gold

Brainstorm or list as many ways as possible that you could finance your career. Seek suggestions from others to widen the possibilities. Ask your way to success.

Check out this interesting article http://tommorkes.com/the-complete-guide-to-crowdfunding-your-book/.

Read a copy of my book Mid-Life Career Rescue: Employ Yourself and find out how one man financed his career and reclaimed his life.