Being a Professional Writer:

Writing is a financially risky profession.

2006:

¨ Day jobs provided steady income, first as severe needs special education teacher at Show Low High, then as reading teacher at Canyon Day Junior on Fort Apache Reservation.

¨ More material, but it cut into my writing time.

¨ I still sent out queries to agents for the novel and I wrote the screenplay for Running Away.

¨ I was a part time professional.

¨ After more rejections, I started investigating self-publishing.

2007:

¨ I was approved for a home equity line of credit just before my teaching position was cut. I searched and applied for jobs, but that financial cushion gave me the confidence to be picky about jobs and to invest in myself as a writer.

¨ I had iUniverse publish Running Away. It took months to get the cover right and edit through final proofs. I wasn’t impressed with their editing, so I hired people locally. (I will not use iUniverse again.)

¨ Finally realizing the importance of having published clips, I entered short story contests and tried to sell them as well. “Bad Mommy!” won an Honorable Mention in Writer’s Digest 76th Writing Competition. “A Single Christmas Tale” was published in The Maverick.

¨ Remember the screenplay I wrote in 2004 and got paid for in 2005? I flew into Hollywood for the premier of a drastically changed film and advocated for my “Creative Consultant” credit on the DVD of Eye of the Dolphin. A few of my lines made it through, but not much.

¨ I attended the Wrangling Writers Conference in Tucson, networking with professionals, learning an overwhelming amount about marketing, and pitching my screenplay. Victoria Lucas asked for the complete script. She did not find a producer, but she did like it enough to try bouncing it off a few.

¨ Running Away came out in print in September. I was interviewed on Apache radio and White Mountain Radio. I sold it at book-signings in Show Low, Springerville, Lakeside, Pinetop, Whiteriver, and Tucson, Arizona. I got licensed and learned how to file TPT (sales) tax. I read the first chapters of Running Away at Tucson’s Apollo Middle School. The kids loved it. Some of them bought it. One of them emailed me to say I’m now her favorite author.

¨ I joined the Southwest Author’s Association and attended meetings in Tucson where successful authors shared how much marketing they have to do, even with traditional publishers.

¨ It was a red-ink year, but I learned and accomplished a lot.

Professional writers have to sell their work themselves.