Tina Haapala, Excuse Editor

Recently, I spent a few days at the OWFI writer's conference in Oklahoma City. As I was gathering my receipts and such, I thought about the best ways to make sure that money wasn't wasted. The next few posts will focus on The Writer's ROI (Return On Investment). Travel expenses, Conference Fees, Hotel Fees, Food and Drink. It all adds up. Go ahead, add it up.*  Let's say you spent $1000. Su re, you are treating your writer self, and you want to feel like you are "getting away from it all". For example, if I would have been more of an early bird this weekend, I would have loved to splurge and take advantage of the fresh-made omelet bar every morning (and maybe even a danish or two, or oooo--biscuits AND gravy). But I was there to learn about writing and marketing. I couldn't miss a session because I was waiting in line for someone to cook for me. A portion of my conference fees would be wasted! And yes, the breakfast is built in to the hotel room price, ...

Prospering in the Gig Economy:  Simple Habits for Writers That Pay Off Quickly Guest Post by Christina Katz Money is what writers earn for their time and energy. Furthermore, writing careers are built over time not overnight. So don't put your career in jeopardy by paying attention to everything else at the expense of your bottom line. Here are nine prosperity-increasing tips that can quickly become habit and put more money in the bank for the same number of hours you already work or maybe even less: Make a list of paid work vs. unpaid work, if you don't have one already and update it monthly. Add to-dos like upcoming deadlines and prep for future efforts, to make sure you don't have to scramble later. Prioritize the work you do that is paid over the work you do that is unpaid. This doesn't mean the unpaid work is not important or doesn't need to get done. It simply means that you will get the paid work done first and then tackle the unpaid work. Spend time...

I caught the writing bug as a kid. Jackson Elementary allowed its students to create their own little books for other kids to check out. As a third grader, my books were published almost weekly. I was sure I would be a real author when I grew up. Instead, I went to college and focused on business—more realistic. I would get back to writing when I had more time, a computer, and (insert excuse here). I had to concentrate on paying my bills. When a co-worker said to me, “You should buy a house,” I thought she was crazy. My paychecks were small, and I had no savings in the bank. My co-worker and her husband had just bought a beautiful house, but they had two incomes. She referred me to ‘her guy’. He had taken the news of their credit card debt and their limited savings in stride and worked his magic. My Great American Novel wasn’t forthcoming, maybe a different American Dream miracle was. I called the wizard mortgage broker, and recited my wishes. Two bedrooms, at least. ...

It's been almost one hundred years since Virginia Woolf said, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write...". We still fall back onto this antiquated excuse. We don't allow ourselves to write because we focus on the material things we think are necessary for a writer: a desk, the latest computer, maybe even an MFA. Getting all of those things cost money, so we focus on making the money so someday we can buy the things we need to write. So we work for money, but we don't write because we feel that our time would be better spent doing "real work". That way, we can save money for an extended vacation where we will sit on the beach, writing our Great American Novel longhand, or we will rent a cabin in the mountains and our poetry will be inspired by the majestic trees reaching to the sky. After all, everyone knows we need a big space and a fat bank account to write, right? “Everybody knows it because Virginia Woolf said it... But I’v...