So, it's been eight years of blogging now with goodness knows how many posts and thousands of photos, and it has certainly been one heck of an education. But, as anyone who writes one knows, a blog takes tremendous amounts of time, energy, thought, and imagination in order to make it interesting and worth reading. And, as here, it's often all done for free.
In addition to the blog, I've also written thirteen books (there will be a quilting book out in January 14, and there are three more Clever Concepts titles in the pipeline). I am tremendously proud of this fact, and still get a thrill every time I see one of my books in a bookshop. Recently, though, I have been taking a break from book-writing because I realised that the arrangement wasn't working in a satisfactory way. This is quite simply because I couldn't begin to support myself, let alone any dependents, on what I earn from my writing, and it's increasingly difficult to reconcile the enormous amounts of time and work involved in writing books and a blog with the financial side of things. It's a matter of self-respect, too.
I now need some thinking time to consider my options. Do I 'monetise' the blog by accepting advertising, saying yes to freebies and gifts, agreeing to sponsored posts, by selling books and patterns? Or do I stop writing the blog in order to focus on writing books which pay an advance against royalties, even though as everyone in publishing knows advances ain't what they used to be? Do I, perhaps, join the growing numbers of authors who self-publish? Or, is it time now, as they say on Monty Python, for something completely different?
I'm going be away from the blog for a while so that I can focus on how best to use my time. I'll be right back once I've figured things out.
