There’s a lot of this blog dedicated to advice for creators. It seems to fill some kind of pathological need on my part to keep everyone out there from making the same career mistakes I did. If I could take each one of you by the hand and lead you around the minefield of this business, I would. Many of the worst mistakes are easy to avoid, and no amount of warning seems to keep some people from going right on ahead and making them anyway.

The uncertainty of the freelance life means roller coaster income, if you manage to make any income at all.

I know I come across as cynical in these posts sometimes. I don’t want to discourage anyone from pursuing their goals. By all means, be an artist. By all means, follow your muse. But there is no reason you can’t do it forearmed with a little knowledge that may not make you rich, but it may keep you from being poor.

It’s been years since I had to struggle for jobs. I complain about money like everyone else does, not because I make low income anymore (I don’t) but because I am acutely aware of the fact that for at least 1/3 of my career, I made very low income. If you are making low income for a protracted period, you have to make up for years of not being able to save and invest, and that isn’t easy.

If you have $10,000 of debt, it costs you about $16,000 to get out of that debt. Not only are you paying the interest on the debt, but you also have to pay taxes on the income you have to earn to pay off the debt. So if you have $20,000 of debt, you actually have to earn $32,000. And if you have $30,000 of debt, you have to earn $48,000. At that rate, even someone making $50,000 a year is, effectively, bankrupt. Only serious financial self discipline can eliminate that kind of debt and most people just don’t seem to have that ability. Or maybe they just don’t want to take the trouble.

I know so many creators who have gone into self publishing, or decided to take a few months off work to create their dream project. They fool themselves into believing that their project has paid for itself because they went to a convention and paid for their table space with their sales.

But you are ALWAYS losing money if your project has not earned enough to not just pay the print bill and the convention table space, but for the time you put into it as well. Every minute you are living in your home, your project is costing you in rent, food, electricity and other overhead expenses. If you are not willing to look at your project as a hobby that you are willing to pay for because it amuses you, then you must look at is a business expense that has overhead costs every moment you take to produce that work. If you can’t face that set of facts, you are not a professional.

There is nothing wrong with doing art just because you enjoy it. But it is delusional to ignore the cost of the work. Either you’re a hobbyist or you’re not.

Since there is no steady income to be had in this profession, your income is going to go up and down like a roller coaster. My income can vary by as much as $50,000 in a single year.
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As in Twilight Zone interpretation of copyright. Read this. We control the horizontal. We control the vertical. And we control the characters if you just wrote about them but didn’t make a picture. They are ALL OURS to use because you didn’t create a graphic novel, you were dumb enough to just WRITE a book!

Copyright laws protect writers from unauthorized reproductions of their work, but such reproductions only include verbatim copying. Characters are only copyrightable if their creator draws them or hires an artist to draw them.

WTF???

Long story short:

Some deluded fanfic author has decided to publish a sequel to Stephanie Meyers’s Twilight novels. They have entitled this epic Russet Noon, and instead of just posting it online like a normal obsessed person, she has decided to SELL this tome via some company called AV Publishing, an operation which may very well be located in someone’s basement.

The remarkably daffy understanding of copyright law makes for most amusing wank.

After New Moon, I guarantee you that every girl in America will be in love with Jacob Black. Who said things ended at the end of Breaking Dawn? And who says Jacob didn’t get Bella? Forget Edward. Russet Noon is a Jacob and Bella story. The saga continues with or without Stephenie Meyer. So who cares if she postpones the publication of Midnight Sun indefinitely? The fans will continue the story either in their minds or through tribute sequels like this one. Who wants to know about Edward’s side of the story anyway? It’s all about Jacob Black. Hands down. No negotiations. Bella Swan belongs with Jacob Black.

After the publication of Russett Noon, I guarantee you that every girl in America will not give a rat’s ass when you get served by lawyers with so much money they could buy you, your 15 cats, and your hidden stack of Jacob/Edward slash.

Most appreciative hat tip to Arlene.

For the slow children in law school. This is an example of the use of copyrighted material for purposes of satire or commentary. Twilight: The Sparkledammerung. Brutal hilarity.

I once wrote that if someone did this to A Distant Soil, I would just laugh and then buy two copies, but looking back on it, I’d probably cry first. Then I’d laugh and buy two copies.

BTW, many useful copyright links in our sidebar. (Link fixed, thanks!)

Nice Cover Art. Me Likey:

PRESS RELEASE – IMAGE COMICS SCALES OLYMPUS THIS MAY!
Image Comics presents Nathan Edmondson and Christian Ward’s OLYMPUS this May!

25 March 2009 (Berkeley, CA) – Image Comics, Nathan Edmondson and Christian Ward reveal the secret life of the gods through the eyes of the Brothers Gemini in OLYMPUS, an all-new full color ongoing series beginning this May!

“Christian Ward and I created OLYMPUS as a barrel of powder, and along came the good folks at Image with the match,” Edmondson said. “To see our living vision presented to the world by such an excellent and widely-received publisher is an honor.”

OLYMPUS begins with the Brothers Gemini, 3,000 years after Zeus has granted them eternal life in exchange for eternal servitude, hunting an exiled god, only to stumble upon a greater horror by accidentally releasing one of Hades’ most dangerous prisoners. The results explode as Edmondson and Ward expand the mythology of classic tales in a fresh, compelling visual style in an action-adventure driven series unlike any other out there.

OLYMPUS #1 (MAR092402), a 24-page full color comic book for $2.99, will be in-stores May 20th, 2009.