MY PURPLE WRITER BRAIN: December 2023 Edition
Making a Living as a Writer, My Latest Book Review, One of My Favorite Author Interviews, and More
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Making a Living as a Writer
“I feel disappointed having to tell people that because [having books published with a prestigious publisher] sort of seems like a mark of success,” author Andrew Lipstein said. “If I’m not just supporting myself by writing, to those who don't know the reality of it, it seems like it's a failure in some way.” And this is how an article in Esquire begins about the financial reality of being an author. You can read the entire article here:
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a45751827/make-a-living-as-a-writer/
Making a living as a writer has never been harder and this article is the most comprehensive I've read recently about this topic. As an author myself, it really sucks to admit that the dream job I've always wanted just doesn't pay well enough to support my family. But with the way authors get paid by publishers, it just isn't feasible. Authors get paid like contractors not employees, so they pay more in taxes. Authors with publishing deals are not offered benefits like health insurance or retirement accounts like regular employees at corporations. Plus, authors pay commissions to literary agents and have to hire a publicist on their own dime. If you've ever dreamed of having a career as a author, then you better be ready for the reality of just how little you could make in terms of money.
Full disclosure: I have a day job. I've worked as a webmaster for over twenty years. When I first started this tech career, I tried to do anything and everything to get out of it. It just became mind-crushingly boring at times and my passion was really in writing fiction. I tried my best to get a book deal by finding a literary agent. I tried selling short stories to journals and magazines. I even had a couple of stints as a cartoonist and sold my comic strips to alternative weekly newspapers. But the big, gigantic book deal never came and I was stuck with being a webmaster during the day. I eventually figured out how to keep writing while I had a career as a web guy. With a little bit of planning, I've been able to write three novels and one book of short stories over the last five years during the lunch breaks of my day job. I've even grown to love this routine and look forward to my lunch breaks as my favorite part of my workday. Now that I'm at the end of my career as a webmaster and getting ready to retire, I will soon be a full-time writer supported by my pension.
After all of these years trying to get out of this career, I'm glad I stuck with it. Through my day job I have health insurance, vision and dental benefits, life insurance, and a retirement that is about to start soon. After I retire, I can write whatever I want without worrying about the financial side of being an author. I won't have to write for a market; I'll only be writing for myself. If I get a book contract, then great. If I don't get a book contract, then I'll put a book out myself and start writing the next book. Being a hybrid author (one that both traditionally publishes as well as self-publishes) is what the future holds for me. I have a novel coming out on a university press in March 2024, but I have a book of short stories that I may be self-publishing in late 2024. I'll have choices.
Many authors that I talk to still hold on to the dream of making a living solely by writing books. I wish them luck. For me, doing the work of writing while also doing the work of plain ol’ working has just been the way it was for me. I'm fine with that. Luckily, I’ll be doing the work of writing while also being a retiree from my day job very soon. Stick with it, dreamers. Maybe your day job will one day support your dream of writing full time as well.
My Latest Book Review
The Red-Headed Pilgrim by Kevin Maloney is a humorous novel of literary autofiction. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “On a sunny day in a business park near Portland, Oregon, 42-year-old web developer Kevin Maloney is in the throes of an existential crisis that finds him shoeless in a field of Queen Anne's lace, reflecting on the tumultuous events that brought him to this moment. Thus begins a journey of hard-earned insights and sexual awakening that takes Kevin from angst-ridden Beaverton to the beaches of San Diego, a frontier-themed roadside attraction in Helena, Montana, and a hermetic shack on an organic lettuce farm. Everything changes when Kevin falls in love with Wendy. After a chance tarot reading lands them on the frigid coast of Maine, their lives are unsettled by the birth of their daughter, Zoë, whose sudden presence is oftentimes terrifying, frequently disturbing, and yet--miraculously--always wondrous. The Red-Headed Pilgrim is an irresistible novel of misadventure and new beginnings, of wanderlust and bad decisions, of parenthood and divorce, and of the heartfelt truths we unearth when we least expect it.”
Main character “Kevin Maloney” is a fictionalized version of author Kevin Maloney and the book opens with him wondering how he fossilized into the day-job that was only supposed to last for a short time, but stretched into twelve years. What he really wanted to do was see the world or join a monastery or live in the woods shunning modern society and bellowing a “barbaric yawp.” Kevin wonders what happened? He recounts his younger years through his twenties with the verve and idiocy of Bukowski’s Hank Chinaski ala Walt Whitman ala Allen Ginsberg ala Burrough’s William Lee. He quotes Jung and listens to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and asks young women if he can stick his penis in their vaginas (literally). His adventures lead him to a weird, codependent relationship with Wendy which spawns a child named Zoë.
Eventually, Kevin’s relationship with Wendy curdles and Zoë becomes way more perceptive than Kevin or even Wendy can handle. It’s a pretty wild ride for Kevin and Wendy as they travel back and forth from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine and back, their restlessness exasperated by the demands of parenting and the need for money and benefits and stability that only a boring work-life can give.
The main focus, of course, is “Kevin.” He’s the narrator and the center of the story. Often hilariously oblivious, his single-mindedness toward getting laid or finding adventure is endearing for a good while, although his behavior and limited sensibility becomes tiresome and repetitive. Why does he keep making these idiotic decisions? It becomes hard to take after a while. Fortunately, author Kevin Maloney injects pathos and honest reflection by the end, which provides the reader an opportunity to inspect their own life as a teenager and young adult, all the stupid decision that they most likely made and the consequences of those stupid decisions. After reading the epilogue, I was able to relate to “Kevin” a bit and see my own idiotic younger self. That guy—my younger self—made a ton of boneheaded decisions, many of them regretful. One of the things “Kevin” feels nostalgic for is a young person’s ability to just go with it, to just roll with the punches, say yes to any adventure, to just do something—anything. And that’s a wonderful ability to have at any age. As Kevin declares by the end, just say “yes, yes, yes” to adventure.
I enjoyed this novel and I recommend it. I would give this book four and a half stars.
Buy the paperback on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9781953387288
One of My Favorite Author Interviews
Watch my Austin Lit Limits interview with Kevin Wilson, one of my all-time favorite authors! Watch the interview here:
https://austinlitilimits.com/episodes/episode-21-kevin-wilson.html
Buy his latest book NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO PANIC on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9780062913517
Support This Newsletter, Please
I can’t sign off without mentioning the book I have coming out March 22, 2024: THE CODGER AND THE SPARROW. It’s a comical yet moving story about a widower’s unlikely friendship with a young troublemaker. New York Times bestselling author Kevin Wilson (yes, that Kevin Wilson!) said this wonderful thing about it. “Scott Semegran’s The Codger and the Sparrow is a wondrous novel of the road, where two unlikely people seek out the larger world, and in their uncertainty, help each other navigate the way toward something like home. Told with such an abundance of both humor and tenderness, this is a novel of discovery, of searching for answers, and I could not think of two people I’d rather ride alongside than Hank and Luis.” You can read more about this novel here or preorder the paperback at the following book retailers: Bookshop, BookPeople, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Thrift Books. eBook and audiobook links coming soon.
Please consider supporting this newsletter by buying one of the books I mentioned or preordering my new book. Until next time, read more books, support your local bookstores, support your local libraries, and above all else: please show some kindness and sympathy to others. Until next time...
Sincerely,
Scott
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Header photo by Chris Spiegl on Unsplash