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So, this person has asked me and some other writers to address this, and this might be speaking from a place of privilege but I feel like this is overall a bit much in terms of spending -- I mean, if you can, and wanna, spend it, by all means. But I dunno that it's necessary. https://twitter.com/RW_Igloo/status/1194581202927325190
This is his estimate of what he's paying to start his writing career -- https://twitter.com/RW_Igloo/status/1194581203757805569
My thoughts, and I'd love to hear from other writers, is that a lot of this can be useful, but is by no means essential -- you don't have to do tons of writing conferences, or maybe even any. One might be helpful, but otherwise, you can wait till you have more career to show off.
Also most writers are not going to be paying for editing or art for book covers -- that assumes more than just a new writer learning the ropes, it sounds to me like he's self-publishing some work, which is a different question, I think, as to how much THAT should cost.
Feels a bit reductive to say but I feel like... you can mostly just write, write, write, and then submit, submit, submit, without a lot of the cost listed. Maybe buy one writing book instead of 10, one conference instead of many, etc.
Let's break this down item by item in terms of its cost and essentiality. (And this is IMO YMMV.)
Conferences: certainly not useless, but not essential. Probably better once you have books to shop or books published. And even then, pick like, one really good one and do that.
Conferences: certainly not useless, but not essential. Probably better once you have books to shop or books published. And even then, pick like, one really good one and do that.
Classes: if you're not getting a degree out of it, the class better be really top notch or may not be worth your time. The goal would be to focus on one really amazing writing program AND seek scholarships to help.
Podcasts/Patreon -- listen, I'm all for supporting those doing podcasts, so if you have a few bucks to throw at them, amen. We love money! But you can also listen to a lot for free starting out, and then when money rolls in, pay them back then.
Contest submissions: I'm sure there are legitimate contests that require a fee up front, but what's the goal? You don't need contests to get published. They are utterly inessential. Skip 'em. Free OR paid, really. (Again: IMO YMMV. To remind.)
Books, assuming, writing books: I mean, again, focus your attention into a laser, and buy one or two books. Books about writing helped me and they're a lot cheaper than classes/conferences, but you're not going to get multiplicative value by buying multiple books. Focus.
(Note my bias there is that I'm also an author who writes writing books occasionally, so take my words with a big-ass salt lick. Which is better than a big salty ass lick, I guess.)
(Also, remember, writing advice is bullshit. But bullshit fertilizes.)
Travel for writer groups: I mean, those groups should be local, I'd think, so travel costs should be minimal. Distance isn't going to help. And I suspect a lot of groups can be had online? So, zero to little cost here, I'd expect.
Editing: So, a tricky one. Editors at both a developmental and copy-editing level are gold. I'm also not sure you need them at early stages of your career. I mean, maybe to help you learn to deal with criticism and editing and polishing? But... if we're talking submission...
Maybe agents can chime in, but my understanding with agents is that they would very much like to see you're very best work, not your very best work As Edited By An Editor. But, I'm sure there are those who have found value here in terms of submitting? Shrug.
Different obviously if you're self-publishing, but at that point you're just really doing it, and that's a different equation. Paying for self-publishing costs is not the same as paying for the costs associated with launching your career.
And finally, paying for art -- well, again, that's a self-pub thing. Not a learning to write, or launching your career, or submitting to agents/editors thing.
Your real true costs are going to come in with things like computers, phones/tablets, printers, internet fees, 4000 notebooks, 20000 pens, books (not just writing books but you should be reading a lot of books), and, predominantly, the cost of time and frustration.
