Most people, when they start writing, don’t think of it as a business. They’re focused on their art and their craft, which makes perfect sense. It may be a stereotype, but I’ve found a lot of truth in the observation that creative people are stymied by numbers and the more mundane, practical activities in life. We do better when we’re in our own heads, creating our own worlds and our own visions.
But as Kameron Hurley shows us, if you want to be a professional or semi-pro or even part-time writer for money, you’ve got to think of yourself as a business owner. If you want to share your writing for free, as I’ve done here at Catsignal, then you can skip this. Otherwise, take good note of what Hurley has learned from hard experience so you won’t also have to learn the business end of writing the hard way.
