I've created myself a login on BrickShelf.com to expose some more of my Lego work. This is for two main reasons:
One of the problems with writing a book is that the questions never stop. Everyone’s interested in the process because, I guess, everyone wants to be a writer. One question that I haven’t answered yet is how much it costs to write a book. Not in terms of emotional stress, or the pains it puts on your life, but the physical, monetary cost.
When I started writing, I was paying my way through magazine articles, web site design, and the occasional bit of software consultancy. However, the money doesn’t last forever, and the time taken to find new work vies for attention with the time for writing. This resulted in me getting a “proper job.”
This in turn has an additional knock-on effect. Namely, I needed to buy a laptop. Despite being a computer geek of many years standing I’d never owned a usable laptop. They were for non-geeks to do spreadsheets or play solitaire on the train while trying to look cool. (Note to self: it’s not!) Since I’d be writing, a could save money with a low power, low specced machine. But, since part of the book was on graphics programming I needed to test my graphics code on the machine too. This instantly increased the cost of my laptop, but it still came in around the £600 mark.
Next was the requirement to have a decent printer. It didn’t need to be portable (although many good models are now available) but it needed a reasonable fast pages-per-minute count for the last minute editing session I knew I’d be doing in the final week. I also bought a replacement toner cartridge ahead of time. Just in case. It turns out I didn’t need it, but it was the most practical £45 insurance policy I’ve ever taken.
For those that have never heard of me or my publisher (and that will be most of you, I suspect) I should mention that I am English, living in England. My publisher is American, in America. What does that mean for the writer? Other than the fact you need to change your spell checker to American-English? Well, it means to be legally compliant with the contract, and to correctly guestimate the page count you need to use American paper. US Quatro, to be precise. And not A4. So now longer can I use my 27 reams for £2.50 paper I have been up to now, but must switch to US Quatro – at £21 a ream!
Additionally, while on the topic of geography, remember that the cost of postage to American by courier is greater that Royal Mail recorded delivery to London. While the latter can be had for the price of a decent take-away, couriers cost money. For example, it cost £30 to return the contract for counter-signing. If your book comes with a CD, like mine, you will have to pay customs on the CD too. This pushes the price to a whopping £40. I was lucky when posting my second CD, as the courier only charged me £29, but I still poorer.
We should note two things here. Firstly, Royal Mail do deliver to the states, but the timing is not guaranteed, and can take up to a month to arrive. Secondly, most couriers will not collect from your door unless you have an account with them; and that means plying them with a lot of business. So you may still have to pay for a bus trip to the nearest big town, or city, first.
The final cost rarely considered is of pampering. The stuff you buy yourself to keep going, or to treat yourself for doing so well. This varies depending on who you are, and how frugal you can be. Personally speaking, I have a very sweet tooth, and treated myself to a bucketful of sweets. I also treated my proof readers to beer and curry at the book release party. It all mounts up.
So, how much did I spend? £1058 When you consider that £725 (the laptop, printer and toner) is available for my next book, that’s not bad. It equates to £333 in cost. Alas, if I included mortgage repayments, food and travel in that sum I don’t see how I’d make it as a full-time writer.
| Laptop | 600 |
| Laser printer | 80 |
| Toner | 45 |
| US quarto (£21 per ream) | 42 |
| Postage: contract | 30 |
| Postage: final manuscript | 57 |
| Postage: CD-ROM | 40 |
| Postage: 2nd CD-ROM | 29 (charged in error, should have been 40) |
| Celebration sweets | 10 |
| Proof readers beer & curry | 125 |
| Total | £1058 |