sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Being an Author: 7 Things to Do Every Day

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I’m busy. Super busy at the moment:  working on my PhD, running a busy household, writing and, of course, trying to run my career as an author. Some days it feels like that last one is the bit that gets pushed to the side.  I have to give priorities to my family, I have to work on my studies (submission date is creeping ever closer) and I’m a writer, so I have to write. But my career? When do I get time to work on that: to boost my skills, boost my brand, promote my books (and myself)?

The simple answer is, I need to be doing things every day. And, if you want to make a living as a creator, so do you. So, here the things I try to do every day, most of which take very little time, to ensure my career keeps moving.

  1. Read. Okay, so this one can take as much or as little time as you like, but if you want to be a writer, you need to keep reading, no matter how busy you are. For me, it’s a combination of reading children’s books to stay abreast of what’s out there, and to grow my own skills through exposure to good writing, as well as reading more broadly for lots of reasons. I read news articles and commentary to keep abreast of what’s happening in the world, I read blogs from other writers and industry people, I read in genres other than my own to again grow my skills. Don’t have time to read? Then you don’t have time to be a writer. Or, you make/snatch the time. I carry a book wherever I go. I multi task – I read good stuff in waiting rooms, rather than old magazines. I read my blog feeds while eating lunch, I listen to audiobooks when I’m driving. Whatever it takes.

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    You can see I never run out of reading materials. My house is full of books.

  2. Write. I’ve already labelled this as one of the things I put before developing my career – but it is, in essence, at the very centre of my career. I wish I could say I write for hours every day, but at the moment my studies preclude hours and hours, and when I’m juggling those other things on my list, sometimes there isn’t even an hour left in my day. But again, I make it a priority to write something new at least five days a week – even if that something new is just a short poem. It’s not always good writing, but getting it down is what matters. You want to be a writer, you gotta write, and that means making the time, not waiting for the time to magically appear.coffee and poem
  3. Tell people you are a writer. If you want to be a professional, you gotta act the part. In the past, I kept a bit quiet about my writing, because I felt like I was showing off, or thought people might not be interested. I would say ‘I work from home’ or simply “I write”. Now, when people ask me what I do, I always say ‘I’m a children’s book author’. Then, if they ask for more detail I tell them, and I always have a business card in my wallet which I present when they ask where they can find out more. This isn’t pushy: it’s professional.
  4. Tell yourself you are a writer. If it helps, dress for the part. Sometimes when I am not feeling very authorish, I’ll put on my favourite big earrings or colourful clothes that I wear for school appearances: even though I’m not going anywhere.I don't dress like this every day - but sometimes dressing up helps me feel authorly.
  5.  Do at least one thing every day to promote yourself and/or your books. For me, that means using social media: as well as this blog and website, I have a twitter account, Facebook author page, Instagram and Pinterest accounts. I don’t do every one every day, but I make sure I do at least one. It takes 30 seconds to compose a tweet or Facebook status. Not every post has to be saying ‘buy my book’ – in fact, though it’s the subject for a post of its own, very very few posts should do that, if any at all. Promotion might be letting people know where you are appearing, where your books have been spotted in bookstores, book news and so on, or it might be simply engaging with readers and potential readers by sharing interesting links, or photos or world views. I combine my social media with my reading, by tweeting and facebooking articles I find about matters relating to reading, literature and poetry.
  6. Be organised. It is a career and it must be treated as such. For me, this means that when I sit at my desk in the morning, I make a list of anything that MUST be done that day and I cross it off as I go. I also have a longer running list of objectives, which I revise weekly. On my daily list I include emptying my inbox, and promotion tasks, as well as the writing and study things I need to complete. If I’m honest with you, I don’t always get everything on my list done, but when I sit down the next day I see the uncrossed things and put them at the top of that list.
  7. Lastly, but most importantly, enjoy the ride. Some days – most days, being an author is hard slog. But every day I try to remember to smile, if not about something that’s happened that day, then at least by looking back. From my desk I can see copies of my published books, the wards I’ve won and other reminders that I AM an author. So, while some days the smile comes from the joy of creation, or an acceptance, or lovely feedback, or just finally finding the perfect word, other days I look up from my desk and see those reminders. If you can’t find anything to enjoy about being a writer, it’s just hard work. When there’s a smile on your face the work is easier – and better, too.Being an author is fun!

That’s my seven. What about you? Is there something YOU do every day that you’d suggest other writers do?

 

Festival Fun

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As you may know from previous posts, I love getting out and about and talking about books and writing and reading and poetry to audiences of all ages.

So, I really enjoyed my two most recent festival visits – even though I’ve been so busy festivalling and catching up in between that I haven’t blogged about either of them. So, here goes.

Festival 1 was just down the road from where I live. Seven Rooms Seven Stories was a debut festival hosted at Mary MacKillop Catholic College in Busselton, and organised by the amazing Beth from Dymocks Busselton.

Beth and her team did an awesome job of organising the festival: everything ran so smoothly, it was hard to believe it was the first year this event was held. And I’m sure it won’t be the last. All the authors and illustrators invited were West Australian, which was a nice touch, and the audiences were keen, well prepared and very engaged.

Signing books with the wonderful Dianne Wolfer.

Signing books with the wonderful Dianne Wolfer.

Festival 2 was a little further away, in Albany, in the Great Southern Region – about 4 and a half hours drive away. I really enjoyed the drive down and back – it’s a beautiful road trip. The festival, the Southern Sea of Words, was hosted by Great Southern Grammar and organised by the lovely  librarian, Karen.

The festival, over two days was lots of fun. Day 1 was spent  with groups in the school and day 2 was open to the public, and I spoke to adults and children. I even did my debut  session as a performance poet, which I loved and will blog on in an upcoming post.

Albany 2016

I promise I’m in this one! Having fun with Leanne White, Sandy Fussell, Dianne Wolfer and Deb Abela, some of the other presenters.

Now I’m back home and back at my desk . It’s always good to get  back to work, but I do love getting out and about!

Pay Up: Why Authors Should be Paid to Speak (Part 2)

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Speaking at Celebrate Reading at the wonderful Lit Centre, which always pays ASA Rates.

Speaking at Celebrate Reading at the wonderful Lit Centre, which always pays ASA Rates.

Yesterday I spoke about the reasons authors should be paid to speak. I spoke about why it was important for the authors to be paid, but I didn’t talk about what was in it for the people paying the authors – the festivals , schools and libraries who I’m saying should be paying authors for their time. So, here we go with why it makes sense to pay authors to speak:

  1. We entertain (and inform) audiences. The very popularity of literary festivals vouches for the fact that people want to meet and see and hear authors speak about their work, about life, about all kinds of things.
  2. When we are paid, we are more likely to go the extra mile. It makes sense, doesn’t it? If authors are being paid for their time, then they are likely to see presenting as a job, and therefor prepare well, and give generously of that time.
  3. Literary festivals, school author visits, library talks, dinner speeches etc etc all promote literacy and reading. In the case of children’s authors, this link is hopefully obvious – hearing from a real live author encourages children to read not just that author’s books, but more (and hopefully more and more). But this works for adults too. Hearing a good speaker read from and talk about a book leads people to read more.
  4. The hour long presentation is the culmination of many hours’ work. Although most festival and school sessions are an hour or less (with the exception of workshops), the fee paid to the speaker takes into account the amount of time that goes into preparing for the session as well as the years spent honing the skills used to write the book and develop speaking skills.
  5. Authors promote the festivals/events they speak at. Most authors use social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, websites) to spread the word about their appearances, drawing audience members, and spreading the word for future festivals. They also talk among themselves. A good festival experience will be shared with fellow authors socially. I have a wish list of festivals I’d love to attend based on their treatment of author friends. Payment is one part of this experience.

If you are running an event in Australia arnd are not sure what you should be paying, the Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has a detailed list of rates, which should be a great starting point.  And, if you are an author, I encourage you to charge properly for your time.  Again, thanks Philip Pullman for bringing this issue to the fore.

 

 

Pay Up: Why Authors Need to be Paid to Speak (Part 1)

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PWF12 gesticulating

Speaking at the Perth Writers Festival, which pays ASA Rates. Hooray!

This week author Philip Pullman has been in the news for pulling his support of the Oxford Literary festival because it does not pay authors to appear there. Bravo Mr Pullman! The news that other prominent UK based authors have signed an open letter calling on authors to boycott literary festivals which do not pay has kept the topic in the spotlight. I thought I might devote some blog time to examining this issue from the Australian perspective .

Though in my experience most festivals here in Australia pay, and pay the recommended ASA Rates, I don’t know any author who has not, on numerous occasions, been asked to speak at a school, festival, library or other event for free. It’s happened to me more times than I can count.

There are two main arguments put forward for speaking for free. Firstly: standing up in front of an audience is great for promotion. People will hear you speaking and go and buy your book.

Let’s look at that for a moment. An audience might range from a few people to a few hundred people. Let’s assume I speak to a group of 100 people. And let’s say I am absolutely riveting in my presentation, which inspires all hundred of those people to buy one of my books. Should they each buy a $20 book, sales will come to $2000. A tidy sum for my hour’s work? Maybe, except of that $2000 my royalty cut, at 10%, is $200. That’s if the book is not illustrated (which most of mine are) , in which case my royalties are 5%, so $100. Which I’ll receive up to six months later, because royalties are paid twice yearly. Of course, a bigger audience might mean more sales, but the reality is that it is highly unlikely that every audience member will buy a book, especially at a festival, where there are numerous authors presenting, because attendees will need to make purchasing decisions based on budgets and the strength of their book-carrying backs.

Of course, promotion isn’t all about book sales on the day. Making a name for myself might lead to sales of future books, as well as future sales of my backlist (once they read one book, they’ll want to hunt them all out, right?) In my wildest dreams all 100 of those people might go and buy all 10 of the trade books I have in print – resulting in $20000 sales, and $1000 royalties. Over weeks, months or even years.

The second argument for speaking for free is about budgets. If festivals (or schools, or libraries, or whatever) paid authors to speak, then they couldn’t afford to hold the event. And of course we all want to encourage reading through such events, don’t we? Yes, we do. But this argument doesn’t hold up unless everyone else who works at the festival is also working for free. The program manager. The venue staff. The sound/lighting people. The printer of the programs. The catering staff. If these people – who all do important jobs – are getting paid, why not pay the talent? The people standing up front who are, after all, the ones that the audience is coming for, are entitled to be compensated for their time. Because if there are no speakers, there is no festival.

I said there were two main arguments given for not paying authors but there is a third, unspoken one: the implication that authors don’t need the money. Because we’re all rich. Right – if earning $12, 900 a year makes us rich. That’s right – the average Australian author’s income is less than $13 thousand a year. So that fee for speaking is much-valued income which gives us a little bit more time to write. When we speak for free we not only miss out on that payment, but we are also taken away from either writing, or from a day job which enables us to eat – because authors, just like every all humans , like to eat, and pay bills and so on.

So, thank you again Mr Pullman for standing up for authors. Thanks too to the many festivals and schools and libraries across Australia who pay authors properly. And thank you to the ASA who fight for the rights and conditions which Australian authors enjoy.

This post has focussed on why the authors need to be paid. Tomorrow, I’ll look at what’s in it for the festivals. .

What I’ve Been Up To – and What I’m About to Do

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Last week I spent five days working with the cream of the South West’s young writers, in Bunbury and Busselton. These young writers, aged between 11 and 18, were attending the Young Writers and Youth Literature Days, run by The Literature Centre. In this amazing programme, each participant comes once a term for a whole day of workshops with an author. This time round, their author was me.

What an amazing privilege it is to talk writing and the writing life with young people who love reading and writing as much as I do. When asked to write, they do. When asked to share their writing, they do. And the buzz in the room during sessions and during books is just fabulous.

The focus of my workshops was on building character through plot, using dark and light scenes. And, of course, I had them write a poem for one of the sessions – with some keen poets choosing to use poetry for every exercise.

By the end of the week I was exhausted – six hours a day, speaking and listening and sharing isn’t easy. But it was the kind of exhaustion which is deeply satisfying.

On Sunday, I headed to Narrogin where, as a part of the Spring Into Narrogin Festival, I ran a writing for children workshop for a small but enthusiastic group of local writers.

Tomorrow, I am heading off again – this time to The Literature Centre proper, where I’ll be taking part in the amazing Celebrate Reading Conference. I can’t believe I’ll be sharing the stage with some of my favourite Aussie writers and illustrators – Isobelle  Carmody, Bruce Whatley, Allison Lester, Peter Carnavas, James Foley, Anna Walker and Catherine Bateson – and hanging out with so many teachers and lovers of children’s books for two days.

I love my job.

On Tour: Living the Dream

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Last week I got to live the author dream, and travel around the country talking about myself, my books and writing.

The tour, to promote Roses are Blue, was organised by Walker Books with support from an Australia Council Grant.  I visited schools, bookshops, libraries and even a radio station in Brisbane and Melbourne, where I spoke to hundreds of young readers, teachers, librarians, booksellers and book lovers.  How lucky was I!Brisbane 2015

Favourite bits of the week:

1. Speaking to so many enthusiastic and receptive kids – and their teachers, and librarians. It never gets old or boring talking about books and writing and reading, and every session is different, because the audience makes it so.

2. Visiting amazing bookstores and meeting and talking with booksellers passionate about putting good books into the hands of young readers.

3.  Having young readers tell me the way that one of my books reflects their own life. It delights me to know that they can connect in this way with Amber, or Pearl, or John.

4. Speaking to a group of librarians who came to Lamont Books after their work day to chat with me about poetry and verse novels and all things book.

5. Chatting to David Curnow on ABC Brisbane about Roses are Blue, writing andBrisbane Me Sheryl Gwyther Julie G Octber 2015 more. What a wonderful host David is.

6. Catching up with friends old and new both as part of the programme and socially in the downtime.

7. When the tour was over, coming home to my beautiful family. I love touring and travelling and seeing great places and meeting great people, but in the end there’s no place like home!