Ditch job, become an author!?

[Pigsmummy]

I haven't voiced this in RL, I would love to ditch my well paid job and write some gritty fiction. I read a lot, hundreds of books of different genres, I also really enjoy theatre. I have the outline story of about three books in my head currently and in my day to day life find situations that I would love to write about.

Where do I start? Do I type up my outline and try to enter competitions? Do I write chapters then send them to a publisher? (I work in sales so have developed a thick skin regards rejection). How much might a publishing deal be worth? (kicking myself that I didn't get this nailed before ebooks came along).

I have wanted to write for a long time (most of my adult life) but suppressed the desire, i have a good job, been in this position for 6 years, my colleagues would be astounded by my lack of motivation and enjoyment of my job as i hide it well, I often sit through high level meetings wishing the time away so I can get back to my Kindle.

Is this madness? Has anyone done this?

I am 39, married with one DC btw

'What do I do with it?'

I think the first thing is to perhaps start reading up on how the industry works. You write, first. Enter competitions. Self-publish on a writer's site or a blog. Seek feedback. Get better.

Send your work to agents (not publishers.) Be prepared for rejection. Look at Miss Snark's website for tips on hooking the agent and avoiding ending up in their reject pile.

Dreaming of being a novelist is a bit like dreaming of being a pop star. Of course you CAN do it, with drive, ambition, talent and commitment, but it's not exactly something achieved just because you have a dream.

Life is too short to spend it in a job you dislike.

Can you work part time/take unpaid leave to follow your dreams?

Interesting article

Do you know how many of us out there there are, trying to earn money by writing?

Zillions.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't try nor that it won't work out for you, but you have to be realistic.

I'ld enrol in a writing class as a first step.

Abraid, that's great.

I had a few books published some years ago. Every march and October I get very excited about my royalty cheques. Last October, it was about £30.

that was a good year!

I worry that there are more people wanting to write than willing to read. Creative Writing degrees are churning out probably 1000s of people a year, many of who want to become professional writers. There are (very good) Arvon courses. There are Guardian masterclasses. There are writing workshops in places like Skyros.

I do see that many of use need to feel creative. Our jobs don't necessarily satisfy all our urges to do something meaningful. I'm not sure that it's very sensible to feel totally fulfilled by parenthood - certainly not to attempt to live our lives through our children.

But is it like a slightly more upmarket fantasy about wanting to win X-factor?

At the moment several of my author friends have had emails from their publisher saying that unsold copies of their books are going to be pulped. A branch of Waterstones might order one copy of a newly published novel - and return it if it doesn't sell within a very short time frame. Everyone is banging on about ebooks and the digital revolution, but we are not all gifted at self-promotion. The skills of good writing, and the skills needed to be a good salesperson are very different.

My own writing has brought pleasure into my life. I've won a reasonably prestigious competition. My work has been broadcast. I've done readings and had commissions. (Etcetera. Etcetera.) My publications have brought me various interesting bits of paid employment and freelance work. But after twenty or more years hard graft I'm currently feeling pretty jaded. I'm sure my enthusiasm levels will pick up again - after all writing is one of the things I always do, even if there are lows as well as hight. But I do feel very, 'Don't put your daughter on the stage Mrs Worthington, about it.'

To pick up on something someone else said up the thread, I'd be highly dubious about specialising in YA writing if that isn't your thing, as there's an awful lot of people currently aiming themselves in that direction. Several former fanfic writers have switched over to YA, and from the MA courses I know of/have friends who teach on, the majority of the students seem to be writing YA/fantasy/things involving vampires etc. I also happened to glance at a Faber Academy chatroom the other day (a taster one for people considering doing an online Writing a Novel course), and all but one of the novel ideas people were pitching were fantasy/alternative universes etc.

I think the market will be saturated in about ten minutes...

Thanks for all the responses, fantastic advice. I knew that the industry was tough. I will write, write and write some more.

I wish that authors got more financial reward but money isn't my motivation (in my corporate job it is but not with writing) I wish that talented authors could support themselves on writing income and it's sad to hear that this isn't happening, It has been great to hear from writers on here, thanks again.

I will set aside time to write but continue with my corporate slog. Some the skills I have honed over the years will come in useful with my writing endeavours.

Imperial Blether your analogy doesn't quite seem right to me, I wouldn't expect to be able to become a surgeon without many years of formal training, I haven't ever been taught any surgery however we are taught creative writing in school and for me in the subsequent studies I did at evening class when I was young, so not the same?

OP, you raise a reasonable question about learning the craft.

Does a writer need to go on a course?

My answer from personal experience would be no. Though I know they help a lot of writers to focus and to read widely and with a certain eye. In fact, I'd say that's one of the key skills for a writer: to read as a writer. By that I mean, to boil it down, to notice that invisible scaffolding, to see the art.

Some MAs are very good for this. They send a writer away to read x, y and Z, but with a view to spotting the scaffolding IYSWIM.

As foe ebooks, I don't think this is something we need fear as writers. Yes, there's a lot of self published crapolla out there, but the best selling ebooks tend to be the same books that are selling well in PB. My royalty statements have been telling me for a while now that I sell far more ebooks than PBs. That's fine. I get a fair (ish) %.

Teenage DS is at University. He has always wanted to become a writer.

He had his first book (a children's novel) accepted for publication last August; it is due for publication in March. As far as I understand the first royalty cheque won't appear till 2015. His main "day job" is being a University student and he's not giving that up, but he has given up his part-time shop assistant job to give him more time to write. However after paying his bus fares he was only earning £5 an hour so it wasn't much to give up and any writing successes will be more beneficial to his CV and long-term prospects than working in a shop.

I wouldn't recommend anyone to give up a well paid day job.

(Regardless of finance, I don't anything would stop DS from writing, it is his passion. The thrill of having his book accepted was brilliant.)

writersmum payments usually involve an initial advance payment.

Though you don't receive this in one go. You get part on acceptance of the manuscript and part on publication.

The advance usually (though not always) forms part of a multiple deal ie two or three books.

You then get a royalty statement every six months. If you have outsold your advance, taking into account joint accounting, then you start getting royalties. Worth remembering though that most authors never earn out their advance!

I agree with wordfactory on many points. As soon as I say I'm a writer, the floodgates open. I would say half of the mums I meet say they want to do that too, and they generally expect me to tell them how to do it. It's not about 'life's too short to be in a job you hate.' If you hate your job, get another job if you can, pay the mortgage with that and write in your spare time.

I make a decent amount from what I do, but I would never rely on royalties, always advances, then anything else (PLR etc) is a bonus.

I've never done a writing competition, never done short stories, never got friends (real or online) to read my stuff. You can make a thousand obstacles if you put your mind to it, or you can open up a document/grab a pen and paper, and start now.

Yes, he will have to sell a huge amount to get royalties - and if it's in selling in supermarkets, will probably have to wait longer. There must be a link somewhere that says how many you need to sell to earn out whatever your advance is - anyone know of one?

Actually, ongoing royalties are hugely helped by ebooks.

It used to be that once the publisher stopped printing, that was pretty much all the book would sell. Now a book can carry on selling ad infinitum.

So if you get a new book out, new readers can easily access your back catalogue.

I still receive a six month royalty cheque for that first book I wrote over ten years ago. People are still buying it as an ebook! DH calls it the gift that keeps on giving .

See if you can write a Minecraft e-book. Ds has spent £1.86 each on two of them. They were indescribably awful in terms of spelling mistakes and, barely-literate grammar; the conventions of the genre require extensive descriptions of Minecraft scenes so they were pretty dull too. But ds lapped them up and found them pageturningly (pagetappingly?) dramatic. I'm assuming that you're not a Minecraft devotee, which perhaps you are, but if you can rapidly mug up on a current trend and write to a formula, it will prove something about your ability to produce commercial writing, at least to yourself.

Disclaimer: I have no idea whether you have to be officially commissioned/licensed by Mojang to write Minecraft literature... I do not consider myself liable for any future copyright wrangles!

waiting I've gone through fluctuations in my response to would be writers.

Now I always say, yes I'll look at your MS, yes I'll introduce you to my agent when you give me 80,000 words .

That's true, word factory. Mine only sell as e-books now.

DH always asks if I mean pence or pound when I tell him my figures after one particularily disappointing year.

wordfactory he won a competition with a cash prize and a publishing deal. So he did get money up front, but it wasn't described as an advance (as far as I know). He'll get his full royalties; it isn't dependent on outselling the prize money.

From a parental point of view it has been tremendously exciting; but he really has worked doggedly away at his writing for several years now.

That's wonderful, writers mum. You must be v proud.

Op, I think comps are great. Richard and Judy run one. So do She(?) magazine. Things like the Mumsnet/walker book comps are good to enter too.

Mslexia magazine is a good resource too.

writersmum that is fabulous. He must have a real talent.

I hope he really enjoys this experience. I wish I'd paid more attention to that first flush of sheer enjoyment, because after that, I've been on the hamster wheel of commercial fiction...a book a year (or there abouts).

Sorry, if that sounds whingy. It's not meant to and I do know a million people would eat their toe nails to be in my position, but the reality of commercial success is quite demanding in terms of deadlines and of course sales (which I have no fecking control over).

Yet another writer here. I'm afraid I read that Guardian article and jumped about happily for a few minutes as I actually earned a whole £800 from writing last year. (That's the income I can actually state as purely from writing fiction: one novel advance of £500 and four short stories at £75 each)

OP: don't give up the day job, obviously. As to writers' groups and writers' courses, I'm with Stephen King - they can make a so-so writer a bit better, a reasonable writer quite a bit better, but they can't do anything with a shit writer and might actively harm a great one. Though there is one function writers' groups/ associations fulfill - writers benefit from socializing with other writers. I've got into doing reading events and joined a group of published writers in my own genre, and it's really, really nice to talk to people who just get it - and the way we all big each other up and swap blog tours etc is good as well.

I would also recommend reading the mags Writing and Writers' Forum. Some of the advice is marvellous, some of it awful, but they are also full of information about which publishers are looking for what kind of stuff.

If you want to write, then write. No one can do that bit for you. You have to apply arse to chair and fingers to keyboard (or pen to paper) and get on with it. You might be great, you might be shit, but you won't know until you try.

Oh and writersmum - how lovely! Good for your DS. He may well be one of the ones who earns enough to buy you a house and a diamond-plated ferrari or whatever. My DS likes writing too, though as he is only 9 at the moment his stuff is mostly sort-of fanfic with fart jokes, but every now and again he willo come up with something interesting.

sgb I give my writers group a huge amount of credit for my success.

Without their initial encouragement, I don't know if I'd have even finished that damn book!

We still meet up. And yes, I'm the only published one of the group, but they still have their ambitions and I still love them all dearly.

Talking of Stephen king, his book 'on writing' is fab.

And stay off Mumsnet when trying to write (er herm)

I couldn't resist 'tweaking' Dss (13) English homework last week.

I got the best review I've had for years.