Welcome to My Fantasy

While it's nice to toy around with the notion of tons of money, my ambition is to write something that matters to people. If there's financial reward in that, great. If not, hearing someone say they love a story or a character is mighty fine compensation. However. For this brief post, we flew in on the Fantasy Island plane. So here's my fantasy:

You already know that 10% of my gross (from any source - whether from writing or from doing tarot readings for people - what? You didn't know about that?) goes to charity. Because why wait? I might not get to donate a lot, but it's something I can do right now.

My first fantasy is for the amount of money sent to charity to go up. Way up. Right now, I circle between supporting Best Friends Animal Society, Big Cat Rescue and the Nature Conservancy. But there are so many more I'd love to support. USAID because of their work in offering voluntary family planning, contraception and reproductive health services to women who would otherwise have no access. My local community builds tiny houses for the homeless. I'd love to get behind that, too. So many causes, only so much of me. But big money could make more of a difference than my limited resources can at the moment.

Second fantasy: I'd buy out my parents' mortgage so they'd have more financial leeway. I'd probably buy a house for my sister and her daughter so they could give up renting. College funds for nieces and the nephew, absolutely. Once that's done, a scholarship for women in science/engineering.

Finally, for us, it's hard to say what we'd do. No house. Not into houses, much. But a condo? Maybe. We wouldn't get rid of the boat. It would get some upgrades. Solar panels. Possibly a watermaker. Or we might decide to go up to a blue water boat (the one we're in is a coastal cruiser) like the Voyage 450. But certainly, travel would be ultra high on the list. In fact, we might have some marital discord over it. I'm an adventure traveler. No one else in the family is. With enough cash incoming, I'd be off to Antarctica in a shot. There's also an almost year-long trip down the spine of the Americas - from Alaska down to Tierra del Fuego.  Not to mention a whole slew of physically challenging trips through questionable places that interest me. Sure, sure. I'd go to museums and sit in cafes. So long as I got to do some wilderness, too. My fondest wish, though, is to be sailing in warm water. I very much want to be out on the bow watching the flying fish leaping out of our bow wake. And I want to be luxuriously warm while I do so. Because the great thing about writing? I can do that from anywhere. Might as well not be freezing my digits, right?

Not deep fantasies, maybe, but they keep me going when the writing gets hard - the more writing I sell, the more lives I can improve via charity. The more I write, the closer I come to annoying my husband with an eleven day hike across Tsavo National Park.

Perils of the Writer: The Writing Game and the "Big Money"

On one of my OryCon panels-- "What I Wish I Had Known Then"-- one of the other panelists made the distinction between a writer "getting paid" and "getting paid money".  Which confused me, because what would you be getting paid in, if not money?  His answer was "exposure".  And it's true, there are several publications of lesser repute who will offer this "payment" of "exposure". 
But that's not payment, any more than handing someone an issue of Saveur is making them dinner. 
Now, if you're at a stage in your writing where, to you, there's value in your work getting seen without monetary compensation, hey, that's your business.  But don't call it "payment". 
But beyond getting actually paid-- which is a lovely thing-- there is the next level of "money" which is the Big Prize. 
King/Rowley/Grisham Money.
I'm not going to fool myself into thinking that's going to come, at least not quickly or easily, if at all.  I'm not doing this with stars in my eyes.  Well, maybe a little bit. 
The truth is, there are several ways to make the "big money" that are far more lucrative-- at least in terms of yielding said big money-- than writing fantasy and sci-fi books.  If I were only concerned about making money, I'd do one of those things.  But doing this-- writing these books-- that's what drives me. 
So if the big money comes-- a film or TV deal based on Thorn and what follows, for example-- I'd like to think I'd mostly keep doing what I'm doing: writing the next book.
And travel more, of course.  Those aren't mutually exclusive, after all. But in the meantime, I'll be digging away in the word mines.  See you down there.

Dreaming Big - How Much Money is Super Big Money?

This Tuesday sees the release of Word Whore Marcella Burnard's BOUND BY INK. This is the second in her Living Ink urban fantasy series with a very cool heroine who's kickass in an unusual way.

Congrats Marcella!

So, this week's topic is: Dreaming Big: What Would You Do If You Hit The Super Big Money Book?

Okay, you guys know me - the first thing I want to do is parse this. How much is Super Big Money? For most of us Big Money is enough to quit the day job. That's actually pretty damn big, because you have to figure that either your sales are steady enough to bring in the equivalent of a decently paying salaried job plus benefits each month, or that your advance is big enough to last until the next advance. For example, I have a friend who got a $30K advance for three books, which sounds like really great money. It IS nice money and a hell of a lot better than a lot of writers get. However, if you spread that $30K over three years to see the books through to publication, then that's $10K/year or $800/month, before taxes, with no benefits. For reference, the US Federal Poverty Level for one person in 2014 is $11,670.

At the other end, I have a friend who just signed a deal for a $750K advance for three books. She's doing two books/year, so that's a very nice income by most of our standards. However, as the money changes, standards change. She found a $3.2 million house she likes, but can't afford it.

So... Super Big Money is how much?

Millions, right? Like the world's top earning authors. Ol' James Patterson comes in number one at $94 million. La Nora has a tidy $23 million income. With the HBO success of Game of Thrones, George RR Martin is a newcomer to the top earners with $15 million.

That number works for me. Especially as I'm feeling close to George right now, with THE MARK OF THE TALA at #25 in the Kindle store - all cozied up with George, Diana Gabaldon and Neil Gaiman.

I mean - a girl can dream, right?

And that's what we're doing here this week, talking the big dreams! So... what would I  do with that kind of money?

I'm going to figure that by then I would have done the prosaic: quit the day job, paid off the mortgage and various assorted bills. I would have set up my nephews (yes, Hope, I totally would!) and grandchildren with college funds, built my mother that mother-in-law cottage/wing she wants.

Somewhere in there, I'd remodel for my dream bathroom, which would look something like this.

That would be doable within where we live now. After that, I'd buy a house in the Caribbean with this bathroom (and everything else that would go with it).

That's the big dream - the house in the Caribbean. Yes, with plenty of guest rooms so all of my friends can come hang out. I'd travel, hit all those places on my bucket list, but I see myself dividing my time between Santa Fe and the islands. I'm not sure I'd need more than that.

Any money beyond that, I'd entail to scholarships and research. I'd love to be able to do that.

What would you guys do?