Today I link to The Horrid Glory of Its Wings by Elizabeth Bear, posted at tor.com. This story works for me on many levels. The artwork for the story initially drew me (John Jude Palencar). Then, Bear opens with a Beagle quote, and if you know me, you know how highly I think of Peter Beagle. A beautiful print and a quote from your favorite author make it very easy to click the link.
Here’s the thing: Bear echoes Beagle’s style in this story. She writes a slightly self-aware internal narrative that looks at the fantastic element of the story in a quirky, yet every day, commentary, which is a vital part of a Beagle story. Bear’s doing it. At the same time Bear makes the story her own, with relevant social commentary and drama.
My. Blending your own style with that of one of your favorite authors while still keeping your own identity. That’s not easy to do. I’m impressed. I wanted to share.
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We are currently getting ready to do the blizzard. I’m not at work, and snow removal will probably not commence until it is relevant, tomorrow after the blowing. That means that from here on out, I’ll be working on the book today. The gift of time. Can’t say no to that.
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Lots of talk on the internet about money, writing, and doing it for the love. There is one more point that hasn’t been made about doing something for the love.
Hello. I’m Catherine. I’m a teacher. Let’s talk salary.
I understand intimately and personally that one of the things that people in the “less valued” professions will tell you is that they’re doing something primarily for love, not cash.
Well, yeah. If I’m a healthy and balanced individual, I’m going to choose a profession I want to spend time in. If I’m lucky, it might have a good salary, but I’d rather be happy in my day job than not, so salary is not as important a consideration for me. It’s a sad thing that most of the world will pay a business person more than a teacher, but that’s not going to make me desire to be a business person.
The average teacher in the US makes $35K or so. That’s not too bad, but you have to remember several things about that salary. First, that averages every level of experience in every state. That also averages salaries across a variety of rich and poor school districts. This is also an average salary for people who have been required, due to career advancement, to get and pay for masters work. Still, not too bad. Kinda dreadful for someone with that level of education, sure, and if you compare it to other in different fields, the salary is kind of a slap.
On an individual basis, there are many teachers who make considerably less. Our buddy Steve, a math teacher with no MA and around 10 years experience, makes slightly below $30K. He works in a small Iowa city. Both Bryon and I can remember when pay hikes occurred to align teacher salaries more appropriately with similarly educated people’s salaries. He started at $15K in 1985 per year. In 1988, the hike moved us up to $18K. When I let high school teaching in 1994, I was about to break $20K as a teacher with my MA working at a rural district.
These low figures do not take into account the many educational professionals struggling to make ends meet as substitute teachers or adjunct instructors, who can not even get the positions that make some of these low salaries.
These days, I’m getting paid a lot to be a college professor, and my husband is getting paid a lot to be a high school teacher. Honestly, we’re feeling pretty good about the money we make. I never expected to get paid this much to be an English teacher! Here is the relevance to writing and rates: we moved our way into these positions partly by luck, but also by becoming very good teachers with excellent credentials. We are now both pretty satisfied with our jobs at respective institutions.
Primarily, we teach for the love. That doesn’t make us suckers who undervalue our profession. We teachers must also eat and pay rent, so we also teach for the salary, and we kept working our way up the pay scale until we found salaries that were more in line with appreciating the work we do and helping us make our way in the world. Teachers are never going to make as much as those in business, computers, or professional basketball players.
At the same time, we can seek employment in places that will pay us more than the current Iowa minimum for teachers of $24K a year. As you might imagine, these are much more competitive jobs to be hired into, but we worked hard at being the best teachers we can, we kept trying, and, just like publishing, it only took one yes for us to break into these positions.
Similarly, I write for the love. I like writing when a book sweeps me away and makes me feel alive. Of course, if I weren’t writing for the love, why would I be doing this at all? Because it’s really discouraging, isn’t it? There’s a lot of rejection. Then again, come to think of it, my teaching career certainly hasn’t been without rejection either. I haven’t gotten every teaching position I’ve applied for. I’ve often said that if someone had told me it would take me 15 years to land my ideal teaching job, I would have gone ahead and made my living at writing or acting. It’s not easy if you want to realize a goal in any profession.
I am a good writer, just like I know I’m a good teacher. False modesty aside, I value my abilities to do these things. They give me joy.
I also know that being appreciated as a good writer is my responsibility in part. I have to be selective about where I send my work, and I have to think about the opportunities I try for. I have to consider my worth. I have to aim high. That means I’m going to be rejected more often, but you know, it only takes one yes.
I also believe that every move that moves me upward is the right one. That doesn’t mean money only. It means what else can I get from the venue, but it also means how satisfied am I with my treatment as an author. These goals are personal, and should be personal. You should figure out what you want, and strive for that. Just like with my teaching, I’m not going to settle for the thing that comes along because it’s the easiest thing to do. Or because I’m afraid of rejection.
We have some odd ideas about what writing is, because society tells us what to expect, and it is in part a creative endeavor. Teaching isn’t all that different. In both professions, you have to find that compromise between doing something for satisfaction and something for money. You have to find the intersection that pleases you.
In regard to writing, I’ll pretty much do what I did to find my teaching job. Each move I make should be a next step toward my personal goals. That goal isn’t to make the most money, but it is to find the satisfying intersection.
Stop worrying about whether someone on the Internet is right or wrong. Find out what’s right for you, and move toward that. That’s the only right answer. If you have a dream of being a professional writer who makes some part of your income from writing, however, it strikes me that you might follow the advice of some of the people who do, because there may be something to their advice that saves you some work.
Catherine
This series of posts made me want to tear my hair out, but your summary is the pot of gold at the end of the emotional rollercoaster. Sometimes, when getting shot down repeatedly, I lose sight of the fact that not doing something creative makes me crazy as well and is much less productive.
I wanted to tell you I am doing a roundtable tonight with my group on electronic publishing and promotion for which I plan to give you tons of praise and credit having learned so much from you during our conversations.