One of my publishers just sent me a proof for the book that will be released on Sept. 30th. “Everyday Musings” is an anthology of short stories and poetry. It looks fantastic. The company did an amazing job. This will be my fourth book on my own. #Author #EverydayMusings #Amazed I know the picture is not doing the cover justice but was so excited I shook as I took the shot.
My first book was for children and I have developed it into a series. I had no clue how to write for this genre so there were a heck of a lot of revisions to get it just right. So to hear someone tell me from a writer’s group, “Oh any one can do that. I can write a children’s book in a day,” was so lovely. Some people, include writers sadly, think children’s books are easy to do. What people don’t understand is one has to write it in a way that it does not dumb them down or so over their head you lose them. It is a balancing act. Getting the dialogue is not easy.
Kids are smarter than people giver them credit for. If you don’t hook them by the end of page one the book is already on the floor while they look for a new one to read. Who do you think buys their books? Parents. And parents who notice what their kids like or don’t like. If these same parents read the book to their children and see how bad it is, they will put it down.
Kids are tough. If yo don’t think so have a group of children beta read your book. If that doesn’t put you in your place and make you want to go in a fetal position I don’t know what else will.
I now do other genres and with that comes new challenges. I am glad though I started with the genre of children. To the question of how hard could it be. The answer is very hard. In fact children literature has been named from a few big sites as being one of the hardest to write.
Children writers don’t always get props. But they should.
Pricing your work and worth is not easy. How do you figure out how much an hour of your time for the knowledge and experience that you will use to help your client? I think a lot of us undervalue ourselves, not wanting to charge too much and scare people off. But yet when we break down the fee we can see how much we have under cut ourselves.
How we see ourselves as people in so many ways gets hit from a host of places. So when it is time to put a number on what we know we shy from that. It was not until my first client who actually set the standard of how much I charge that I started to feel good about it. In fact she refused to pay me zero. She said what I knew was worth it to her and that my time was valuable. Thanks to her I have progress into making business grow with new ventures.
Let me take a step back. For about three to four years I told people in my writing groups to let me help them. I wanted to show them how I did it. I wanted to teach them what I had learned in what took a few years to figure out on my own and with help from those who were making it.
I didn’t get a nibble. Not one bite. Maybe people feel I am not legit if I don’t charge? Not sure. A lot of people helped me when I first started and when I asked how I could repay them they said always pay it forward. I tried. A few people I was able to. Most of the time no.
Looking at the ratio of pay scales it was in the range of what other charge. So now I charge. Does that give me legitimacy? Perhaps. Will it make the people who said they would want my help and never stepped up be mad when they find out? Probably.
But now part of my business includes more than writing and photography. It includes creating an author’s platform and developmental editing. Who knows it may expand to even more.
Sharon C. Williams-Author 