It took me a long time to come around to realizing that, first, my personal goal really was to write the books I most wanted to write; and second, that given this, the work that supports my writing shouldn't be work-for-hire fiction, but something else--not only because I wasn't ultimately comfortable writing other people's stuff, but also because in general, work-for-hire pays worse than other things I could do, and therefore leaves me less time than those other things do for writing my own fiction. (Because the more other work pays, the less time I have to spend on it, and the more fiction time I have.)
I do not at all regret the first work-for-hire contract I took on, from which I learned a lot.
Someone once said, when the subject of work-for-hire came up, "Do it, but only do it once."
Given that the second work-for-hire project I took on did fall apart (to be fair, this wasn't for lack of trying to make it work on my part), I kind of wish I'd followed that advice. (wry g)
There was also a ghost written book between the two, which was pleasant enough to work on, and ultimately did neither harm nor good, but wrote itself without much fuss and was paid for as promised.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2004-08-29 09:42 pm (UTC)I do not at all regret the first work-for-hire contract I took on, from which I learned a lot.
Someone once said, when the subject of work-for-hire came up, "Do it, but only do it once."
Given that the second work-for-hire project I took on did fall apart (to be fair, this wasn't for lack of trying to make it work on my part), I kind of wish I'd followed that advice. (wry g)
There was also a ghost written book between the two, which was pleasant enough to work on, and ultimately did neither harm nor good, but wrote itself without much fuss and was paid for as promised.