Striking a Balance

This week we hear from the talented and prolific Elizabeth O. Dulemba.

I started working at fourteen, so a work ethic was never my problem. After receiving a BFA in Graphic Design, I worked as designer, Art Director, and always in-house illustrator in the corporate world for twelve years.

Then I met my husband and everything changed. My dream had always been to write and illustrate children’s books. As we joined our lives in a new city, he told me to “go for it.”

It was scary to quit my day job—I’d never done something that felt so irresponsible. And yet, it was amazingly freeing. No nine to five? WHAT!

I did worry I wouldn’t have the discipline to work on my own career every day, but that was short-lived as I quickly found I had the opposite problem - I couldn’t walk away from it. I went freelance for three years while I researched the industry and worked to break in. Then I got my first contract for The Prince's Diary and never looked back.

For those first eight years I was a complete workaholic. In my office (my cave), I worked 24/7, from early morning until late at night. After all, if I didn’t do it, it wasn’t going to happen, right? I got a lot done, illustrated several books, and built a career, but I also wore myself out. After a vacation that resembled a coma and health issues from sitting too much, I’ve had a wake-up call—I need balance.

Now, I try to make more time for me, for exercise, quiet time, and dinner with my husband. I try (not always successfully) to shut it off. But it’s hard when what you do is enmeshed so integrally in who you are. It’s who I’ve always been—this creative soul.

The hardest part about quitting my day job has been to keep time for simple things that have nothing to do with furthering a career—to learn how to PLAY. Who knew I’d have to relearn something so basic at my age? I’m *ahem* working on it...

Elizabeth O. Dulemba is an award-winning children's book author/illustrator of over a dozen books. She is Illustrator Coordinator for the Southern Breeze Region of SCBWI, on the board of the Georgia Center for the Book, and adjunct professor of illustration at the University of Georgia. She speaks regularly at conferences, schools, and events, and teaches "Creating Picture Books" and "Beginning Drawing" annually at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Her latest picture book is The 12 Days of Christmas in Georgia (Sterling). Visit her web site to learn more and download free coloring pages.

From the 40th Annual SCBWI Conference

I’ve been at the 40^th-anniversary SCBWI conference for a week, so this post will be brief and something like a series of tweets, all concerned with making a business out of your writing.

We all got chocolate books at the Golden Kite Luncheon

From Bruce Coville:

Take acting or story-telling lessons. You’ll be speaking in front of groups, so you need to get comfortable.

Take voice or singing lessons so you learn how not to strain your voice.

Our society has a false dichotomy between art and business. Take yourself seriously as a businessperson.

Learn to read contracts, even if you have an agent.

From Leonard Marcus:

Horn Book and Publishers Weekly are open to freelance book reviewers.

If you want to write reviews, start small with a local paper, a church or synagogue newsletter, etc.

From Susan Raab:

To maximize your web presence:

• define your goals and understand your options
• set your strategy and select which tasks will help you accomplish your goals
• assemble your resources
• execute the above, then periodically measure results and adjust accordingly
• add technology only in stages as you get comfortable with it

Don't worry overmuch about social media.

From Marcia Wernick:

Think of your relationship with your agent as a long-term commitment. It took her 2½ years to sell Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.

Each time you start a new book you have to figure it out for the first time. Judy Blume’s most recent book went through 23 drafts.

It’s practical to think how your strengths fit the market, but don’t chase trends.

Be analytical about your creative strengths.

It’s important to build your business team.

Treat your editor professionally: Don’t send messy drafts, and meet your deadlines.

Publishers determine marketing budgets at least a year ahead and rarely change them unless something wildly unexpected happens.

If social media isn’t in your comfort zone, don’t use it. Your discomfort will show.

Make a business plan and review it regularly.

Diversify your career: Write in a different genre or for a different age group so as not to compete with yourself.

From Harold Underdown and Emma Dryden:

They've posted a useful handout on social media resources on Harold's site.

A Cautionary Tale

This cautionary tale comes courtesy of Edie Pagliasotti.

Hooray! I got laid off and now I can write full time!

Yep, that was my mantra, and I was one happy camper. I was laid off from Paramount Pictures in 2008, after working as the administrative assistant to the president of Motion Picture Distribution for eighteen years. Our department negotiated the pricing and booked our films into theaters around the country and overseas. It was a great job. But what I really wanted to do was to write for children.

I had the good fortune to work for my boss as his private secretary until his one-year contract was up with the studio. I was moved out of my office and was sequestered into another office at Raleigh Studios across from Paramount. Fine by me. My boss decided to work from home. Rarely did he ever stop by our new digs. I literally revamped this office into my private writing office, complete with framed horse pictures, a large white board, scattered pictures of sand cats, inspirational desk doodads, etc. I even had my own filing cabinet. During that year, I got a great deal of research done on my nonfiction picture book manuscript, Under a Carpet of Sand/The Wild Sand Cat. And, boy did that year fly by!

Once the year had passed, I packed up this office and went home. I was now truly-really-finally laid off. Hooray! I can write full time!

The thing I was most nervous about in working from home (having never done so), was would I be disciplined enough to get the work done, and not sit on the couch eating Cheetos and watching Oprah? I surprised myself.

My work pattern was to shower, dress, and be at my desk by 8:00 a.m. I took an hour off for lunch. If I was having a good writing day, I would work until 3:00 p.m. If my brain was mush after four hours of working, then I took myself off to the library, or read, or swam, or walked, but never did I watch TV (odd…). I had never been happier in my life.

Then the money began to sputter. And here is where I made my mistake. I was so determined to write full-time that I did not consult with my financial advisor on whether this plan was feasible or not, in the long-term. I did not spend one moment on financial forecasting. Seven months later, when I finally met with my financial advisor, he gently advised me “to deal with reality” and informed me that I would have to return to a full-time job. My life as a full-time writer was over. I had simply retired too soon.

In Hollywood, timing is everything. I returned to the workforce (disgruntled to begin with) just when the economy was taking a nosedive. It seemed every business and studio in Los Angeles had a hiring freeze on. Finally, I did find another job at the Los Angeles Police Federal Credit Union – and even today I consider myself one of the lucky ones to be working.

I look back on my stint as a full-time writer working at home as one of the best things that ever happened to me. I knew that once I could truly-really-finally leave my day job I would have the discipline necessary to sift through mountains of arduous research, the energy necessary to revise and polish manuscripts until they shined, and the courage to believe in myself and send only my best work to publishing houses. That was a worthy goal to achieve!

Oh, and my nonfiction picture book, Under a Carpet of Sand/The Wild Sand Cat, was judged “Most Promising” nonfiction manuscript at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Ventura/Santa Barbara Region’s Writer’s Day. Two publishing houses have expressed interest. Hooray! I can still write in my spare time!

Edie Pagliasotti has been Co-Regional Advisor of the SCBWI Los Angeles Region for the past ten years. She is stepping down as RA in October to spend more time on writing.