October #InkRipples - Career vs. Hobby
When does writing move from a hobby to a career? First and most simply we could just let the IRS answer this for us. They consider it a hobby if you haven’t made a profit after five years (or something like that, I’m not a tax man.) But for now, we’re going to ignore the government’s definition and concentrate on what the author and her readers want. The author’s goals are probably the biggest definer of this. Many authors are happy to write and publish just for their friends and family. They don’t care if their book(s) ever makes money or is held by the hands of a stranger. The rest of us want all the strangers to pick up our book(s) and read. We want fan mail telling us how our book changed their lives or helped them heal or some other life affirming thing. We want fans asking when the next book comes out. We want fans posting drawings of our characters on Deviant Art. Writing fanfiction on Watt Pad. Using our character as their user name. I’m nowhere near that level ...