Coming out as creative
- Jennifer Rae
- Mar 1, 2016
- 3 min read
In my opinion, any creative business is a hard business to break into. I remember first learning this lesson when I was a teenager and sitting my final grades. Not only do I still believe my teacher sabotaged my final project for drama, but here in Australia the creative units are considered less academic (and so apparently easier) and so they adjust your final score depending on your unit choices.
I remember the outrage even then when I was seventeen and realizing that people are going to simplify my passion for the rest of my life. Acting and writing have always been a passion for me and I wanted to have a career in those two fields. I attempted acting first, but then life and responsibility happened - is it tends to do - so I tried to be more conventional.
No one takes you very seriously when you exploring artistic avenues. I found the older I got, the fewer people seemed to encourage it and there was a lot more pushing from friends and family to grow up and get a real job. It is that same kind of feeling I had as a teenager and finding out that the department of education does not see the same worth between drama and math or photography and science. There is something about saying "I made this thing." that makes people question it's worth. Say you are going to study medicine, and you're a hero. Say you want to explore the theater and people are far less impressed with you.
I only started publishing books in 2015 because my teaching career had stalled. I needed to find a new way to support my family, and this seemed like a good enough time to try something I had always wondered about. It even seemed plausible with the expansion of self-publishing. After all, The Martian is a self-published story and just got an Oscar nomination. I could do that too. Becoming a Publishing author was easy. Telling people is the hard part.
There is still a stigma attached to being creative as a career and telling people you are exploring this avenue as a full-time goal still makes me fumble over my words. I do have books out there in the world, and they occasionally make me money. I am a writer and it is hard to get respect for that kind of thing. People see it as a hobby and forget the work that goes into creating one small thing. I spent two years working on Extol of Agnatic Dreams. That was just researching and fine tuning the lore and plot.
It took three months to get the first draft, and then several re-writes before it was good enough to send off to beta readers and an editor. Hours of work which will eventually -hopefully - be sold to people willing to spend $3. That is a pretty low hourly rate. If you manage to make $10,000 a year, then you can claim moderate success as an author. The average income the kid working behind the counter at Maccas is greater than that. It's amazing what is considered successful in the creative world isn't even enough to manage my personal phone bill, let alone my other living expenses.
Being a writer is easy. Being an author is hard. Choosing to go the route of self-publishing is more difficult because you must wear many hats. You are the promoter, the client, the artist, the editor, and everything else associated with getting your book out there. Lucky we live in a time where it is possible to self-promote easily to people who are interested in your product. It doesn't make it an easier road to travel, just slightly more convientant.
I am trying to get my latest novel out into the world through the Kindle Scout program. Kindle Scout is reader-powered Publishing for new, never-before-published books. It’s a place where readers help decide if a book gets published. I need that marketing exposure because no one knows my name. It is so easy to nominate my book, just sign into your Kindle account. It is free, and you will receive a free ebook version of Extol of Agnatic Dreams for your hassle.
Click the link and check out my campaign.
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