For over a year, I’ve been describing myself as a part-time relief teacher, full-time writer. That’s about to change.

The greatest joy of that period was the huge amount of creative time and brain space and the explosion of writing productivity that resulted. Going from full-time teaching to relief teaching + the occasional workshop/editing was a massive gamechanger in so many ways.

But it was also incredibly stressful to deal with so much financial precarity. I was mostly all right1, but the fact that I was never sure about when I’d have paid work or how much I’d earn in a given fortnight wasn’t great for me.

I know there are people who float along, trusting in the universe, positive that everything will all turn out all right, but I cannot do this. My brain is not a floating, trusting kind of brain. It’s a “do maths at 3am to make sure I can cover the mortgage and insurance that’s going out on Thursday, can I afford the fancy sourdough this week or should I make my own bread, hm, if this invoice comes in on time I can cover this bill but if it doesn’t I will need to dip into the emergency fund so I shouldn’t pay off the credit card just yet even if the interest is concerning” brain.

I mean, most of the time, things do turn out all right. Does the worrying make that more or less likely? WHO CAN SAY2.

What I can say is that I have a new part-time job! I am working three days a week as a Careers Development teacher, I’ve been doing it for four weeks, and honestly? I’m having a ball.

This timetable is a dream. Most part-time high school teaching positions are spread over five days, which limits the kind of dedicated writing time I work best with. This job gives me a four day weekend3, except for some travel here and there, which gives me plenty of writing time and means I can still do school visits and writing workshops. The Careers job itself is a mix of practical classroom teaching, administration and pastoral care/careers advice, with a lot of interesting variety, and a ton of learning. I’m really stoked.

But also… I will have less time to write.

Technically, I will be working fewer days than I might have as a relief teacher. But I will be working harder. Coming home and writing after relief days wasn’t usually a problem, but I suspect the same won’t be true here. I’ve opted for pessimism in goal-setting, optimism in everyday practice, and lowering my expectations. If I can do more, great! If my brain is done, it’s done.

Which is to say, I am now a part-time writer, part-time teacher, and that means I need to reassess my writing goals.

I mean, I could just ignore that and try to meet all my deadlines anyway, but I think I’ll skip the painful recovery from burnout this time and go straight to the part where I make a realistic plan in the first place.

Just as a reminder, my initial 2024 goals:

Publish Savory & Supernatural

Write a novella or begin a novel in another genre (secret project!)

Make and schedule social media content for three times/week

Launch Trojan Women arc with Ask Cassandra - eARC team, Olympian boxset release, push media and promo opportunities

Invest 30% of net income in advertising

Complete three productivity/marketing courses3 

Make $20k gross writing-related income

The goals I’m changing:

Write and publish the Trojan Women arc (Ask Cassandra; Love, Laodice; XO, Xena2). Write and publish Ask Cassandra and Love, Laodice. (I’m hoping to at least start XO, Xena too, but this may be a stretch goal.)

Write a novella or begin a novel in another genre (secret project!) Begin secret project novella (this story is eating me alive).

Complete three two productivity/marketing courses3 

Make $20k $15k gross writing-related income

My other goals are staying the same, although I may cut down on my Ask Cassandra launch plans, because that stuff always takes wayyyy longer than I think it will.

January was a tough money month. Almost no income, scraping at the very bottom of my barrel tough. But it was also pretty fantastic, because with the release of Hera Takes Charge and some promo opportunities, I had my best sales month ever - and I’ll actually get the money for it at the end of this month.

Yes, thank you, I would like 626USD (gross). I will immediately spend most of it on membership to the upcoming Romance Writers of New Zealand conference, an excellent use for the money,

What I like most about this graph is that while Hera coming out is a big chunk of the pie, Aphrodite also has considerable sales. This is definitely a result of the huge downloads for Persephone during the free promotions in December. Building the backlist and then promoting the first book in series works4!

My next step is figuring out advertising on Facebook and Instagram, where the book people like to hang. I’ve made some limited forays into this space, but as my marketing budget grows, I’m looking forward to taking a more systematic approach.

I’m also looking forward to telling you more about it!

See you next time,

Karen.

Continually broke, but nothing like dire need.

Being a privileged, university-educated white woman with job experience and family support in case of emergency has definitely been more effective in making things turn out all right than any particular mindset tbh.

During which I will be working. I legitimately don’t know what I would do with a full weekend, in its intended use as two days of leisure. What do people do when they have nothing to do?

She declares optimistically, on the basis of limited data.