I honestly never dreamed I'd be writing a blog post about writing that would include the term 'multiple revenue streams'. But ever since I wrote <a title="Why I don’t take career advice from Cory Doctorow" href="http://davidhewson.com/2011/04/why-i-dont-take-career-advice-from-cory-doctorow/">the Cory Doctorow</a> post, and <a href="http://chocolateandvodka.com/2011/04/13/can-you-afford-a-monoculture-career/">the ensuing Twitter exchanges</a>, it seems impossible to escape the damned phrase. Now John Scalzi (have to mention his wonderful <a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/03/20/the-electronic-publishing-bingo-card/" target="_blank">Electronic Publishing Bingo card</a> again) <a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/04/13/multiple-revenue-streams-revisited/" target="_blank">has weighed in too</a>.

So let me try and put down what I think succinctly here.
<ul>
	<li>Anyone who gives up the day job and tries to become a full-time writer from scratch is arguably insane and probably headed for a sticky end.</li>
	<li>Multiple income streams -- rich wives or husbands, inherited fortunes, lottery winnings, adopting a guru-like stance which gets you fancy paid speaking engagements -- are a good idea in any walk of life, writing or not. Provided they don't get in the way of the real work.</li>
</ul>
That last sentence is the kicker. When I started out writing I couldn’t make enough money from books alone. So I kept on with a parallel career in journalism. For the last decade of that it was writing an 800-word weekly column for the <em>Sunday Times</em>. Latterly they paid me £40,000 a year for those 800 words a week, which was a lot of money frankly. In 2005 I quit the paper. Partly because I was bored with the work. Partly because a movie deal made me feel a little more secure financially than I had in a long time. But principally because I felt it was time to focus on my fiction and devote more time to trying to write better books.

Did I manage? In financial terms, yes. That £40K from journalism got made up elsewhere as I I managed to devote my time and my concentration on the books alone. Would I be where I am today if I were still hacking out that 800-word column for the <em>Sunday Times? </em>No. I wouldn't have had the space to develop my writing. And journalism being what it was I'd probably have been fired along the way too.

Writing's a tough, demanding business. Sooner or later you have to decide whether you're in for the duration or just a bit player. People who manage multiple careers -- speaking, being gurus, developing celebrity status -- are the exceptions in the book business, not the rule. They may get all the publicity, but your odds of becoming one of them are slim indeed. You stand a much better chance of developing a career through writing good books, at regular intervals. And fritte

Authors can have multiple revenue streams without doing much more than write a book. You can have an agent who will sell that book into other markets: audio, foreign translation, TV and movies. Except if you're self published you can't because self-published authors generally speaking won't have agent. Yes I know Cory Doctorow does but as I keep saying repeatedly Cory Doctorow is Cory Doctorow and no one else. Just because he can do something doesn't mean you can emulate him.

So by following the self-pub give-it-away-free route you lose those multiple revenue streams and, yes, need to go chasing another job.

B