a question

[lagilman]

because I'm in the process of signing contracts and sending them off --

do you make (earn) money when you:

-write the story
-sell the story
-sign the contract?


Semantics are fun when you're running a fever...


ETA: interesting to note that some people refer to "story" while others specify "novel" or "book" and at least one person took the easy way out and called it a "piece." (me, I tend to use 'project' when not specifying...)

Comments

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

D. Cash the check.

[girasole.livejournal.com]

Just recently I got a (very small) check for a year-long series of columns about picture books that I wrote for a professional magazine

http://www.teacherlibrarian.com/tlmag/bookmark.html

I wrote those columns over a year's time, ten of them in all, and the check arrived some months after the last one was published. That's when I made the money.

[lagilman]

nah, that's when you get the money, same as with a dayjob paycheck. But when does the actual earning occur?

[terri-osborne.livejournal.com]

I'd say sign the contract.

Nobody's obligated to give you money for the story until that point.

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

Mine's a three part dealie:

On signing the contract

Acceptance of manuscript

Publication

(Then hopefully, royalties, but that's the bonus...)

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Sign the contract.

I may be a newbie in this so-called business, but I've seen enough stuff fall through the cracks that I'd be inclined to add D) deposit the check and E) see actual print.

[lisamantchev.livejournal.com]

You EARN the money writing, rewriting and subbing the piece. That's the working part. ;)

[debg.livejournal.com]

My SMP contract runs as a two-parter: half when I sign the contract, half when they accept the completed manuscript.

I don't know about earning, in the meta sense. Probably when I type "the end".

[lagilman]

Probably, and more what was thinking about than the actual "money in hand" part. But still, a story written but unsold has earned you nothing but experience. Useful, yes, but it don't pay the bills. So is it when you sell the experience that you earn the money?

I did warn y'all A) that we were playing with semantics and B) I'm running a fever, right?

[bentleywg.livejournal.com]

I would say the answer is (d) all of the above BUT it's retroactive, effective when (c) is done.

Or I could be talking through my hat.

[lisamantchev.livejournal.com]

Yes, you did give fair warning... *G*

Selling the piece, while putting the money in your hand, didn't earn the money. That's the difficulty about investing so much time, effort and sweat-of-our-brow in writing... we may not ever get cash in hand for it. So we're earning the money, even though it might never come.

Whooo. Clear as mud, I tell ya.

*puts a washcloth on your forehead and goes to put the kettle on*

[merlinpole.livejournal.com]

do you make (earn) money when you:

-write the story
-sell the story
-sign the contract?

Work done on-spec isn't earning, it only earns when the money comes in after a sale. Work done for a contract gets earned (but not necessarily paid...)

Doing spadework to get contracts generally doesn't involve earnings/income--when I worked on proposals usually the proposal expenses got paid for out of corporate overhead accounts... they were treated as business expenses, they weren't income for the business. Since I was on salary they were earnings for me, but again, I was on salary. Contractors and consultants brought into work on the proposal, if they were doing work-for-hire, got paid and earned money, if they were business partners and taking some of the risk themselves of not getting a contract award, again the proposal effort was expense, not earnings, for.

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

When you write the piece. Even if you don't sell it, you have gained something towards the next piece you write.

Trouble is, you may never sell anything. So is it only the money?

Ack, you are giving me the headache. Go to bed, take a stuffie with you. (try to be sure your thumb is clean)

[(Anonymous)]

That would be E: All of the above.

[peggin.livejournal.com]

I guess that depends on what happens first.

If you write a book and then try to sell it, you haven't earned any money until you sell it. I don't know enough about the world of publishing, but assuming the laws of publishing contracts are the same as general contract law (which may or may not be the case -- I know there are exceptions), a verbal contract is still enforceable... assuming you have proof that you and the buyer reached an agreement. In short, you've earned the money when you have an *enforceable* contract, which may occur either at the point where you make the sale or at the point where you have a signed contract.

OTOH, if you sell the story before you write it, then simply having a contract doesn't earn you any money. They don't have to pay you if you never finish writing the book. In that case, you haven't earned anything until you write the book.

(Is it incredibly obvious that I'm having a boring day at work today?)

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

This was me. My LJ stopped logging me in automatically for some reason.