When to Give Up The Day Job

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If you write at all, you probably have some sort of routine which may involve a certain amount of time a day. If you are published, you probably receive or have received some money for your writing. Remember the great thing about royalties is that they keep coming. Okay, it’s just trickle after the first flush, but many trickles make a flood. Or you might spend time as well on promoting yourself for talks and school visits. So, some of your “writing” time is actually “other writerly activity time”, but it still gives you the right to call yourself a writer.       

Now work out a little simple Maths. You can probably work out a “per hour” figure. Don’t forget, also, that despite royalties being trickles, they are putting up your “per hour” rate every year – more money for no more work – on that particular title.

Is this “per hour” rate equal to what your day job pays? If “yes”, then it’s time to give it a go. If it’s a bit under, can you put up with it? After all, you no longer need to commute to or dress for work. You don’t need so many holidays or so much retail therapy as you now have the perfect job. But you might need to spend a little more on heating.

I’ve known some writers wait until they are earning as much from their writing as they are from their day job. Not a good idea. You’ll kill yourself in the process – and then no matter how good that double salary has become, it will halve overnight.    

You probably won’t do any more writing per day. You’ve probably already found your creative rhythm. You may have fewer days when you are forced to skip your routine. You may well be more focussed and less tired, but not necessarily more creative. There is a slight chance you might go off the boil – you now have fewer chances to observe life because you’re stuck at your desk all the time. You may have to programme in “doing nothing” time. Take the dog for a walk. Go on a bus ride. Sit in a café.

Heaven forbid you ever become a bestseller. Then you’ll have to join those who cram their writing into train journeys, lonely evenings in hotels and what they used to do when they had a day job – get up early, go to bed late, stay at home when everyone else is on holiday and take your laptop with you wherever you go.    

You will, however, probably spend much more time on networking and self-promotion. You’ve just got to. And you’ll get better at it. You may be tempted to do some jobbing writing. That can be as frustrating as the old day job- sometimes worse, but worth it if it takes you way over your hourly rate. (I’ll only do it for double my hourly rate, by the way.) That gives you more hours for doing what you really want to do.  

Here’s a case study. X writes for two hours a day and spends about four hours a week on self-promotion. They earn £30.00 an hour from their day job, for a thirty hour week. So they earn 30 X 30 X 46 per year = £41, 400. However, they can now work for (30 + 14 + 4) hours a week – therefore 2,208 hours a year (48 X 46). They therefore need to earn £18.75 per hour from their writing and promotional activities.

X will probably carry on writing two hours a day. They can do more if the figure per hour goes up. They can spend 34 hours a week on promotional activities. They’ll get better at that and the hourly rate will go up, giving them more research and writing time.  Note that this little formula allows for six weeks holiday which most writers wouldn’t take. There’s also the possibility of eeking back more time because you don’t have to travel, so you might get way with £17.00.Note the difference between the two figures. £17.00 is only just over half of £30.00.

It’s never about being just a good writer of course. It’s about being a good writer and a good self-promoter.  

And it takes a leap of faith – especially in your own abilities.

Exciting or what?  

Is it time for you to give up the day job yet?