Hello, My Lovely Readers💕
So, this post is later than promised because it turned into something completely different than what I had planned. It's a doozy too, so I apologize in advance.
First off, let me say, I rarely like to post anything too personal or negative, simply because many of you tune in here looking to get lost in the worlds we authors create. You don't want to hear about our personal struggles or financial woes (or at least I assume you don't). I've also always tried to take a positive approach in life, put things into perspective, insofar as we all have problems and most people in the world are far worse off. But after much agonizing back and forth, I decided to take a few minutes here to get a little real with ya'll...
I'll start with the news in a nutshell, and that is that I have decided to start a Patreon Page.
For those of you unfamiliar, Patreon is kind of how it sounds: a platform that's been around for a while where you can pay a small monthly contribution (as a patron) to your favorite artists/writers to help support them in their craft. In return, you get special access and rewards. Why am I doing this?? Well, moment of truth: it is becoming abundantly clear to me that unless I can find a way to bring in a bit more money every month, I will be forced to take a significant hiatus from writing to go back to my day job in order to help support my family. That was actually what I was doing this past year and a half after we barely managed 3 months of maternity leave by deferring my mortgage-sized student loan payments. In that time, I rarely had the time or energy to write, especially while pumping. When my health then began to deteriorate again, however—the whole reason I've worked part time these past few years while attempting to write, but that's another story for another time—I was forced to drop my hours back down, and we made the very difficult decision to cash out my 401K to help us get by.
As I know all you working parents out there can relate, most of our money now goes to pay for daycare, which is basically a second mortgage, and our student loans, which are more than our mortgage. Side note: Even with recent loan forgiveness, my debts do not qualify because they are private consolidated, not federal—something we were all encouraged to do years ago when the federal rates on some loans were as high as 12%, but I digress. I also had to have a very honest and difficult conversation with myself. What would I be getting paid per hour if I divided the time I currently spend on all things writing-related (blogging, social media posts, promo, designing, and oh yeah, writing haha) by the amount I actually take home per year from writing? Let's just say, it was less than half of minimum wage😶
All that said, I realize these are struggles that EVERY family faces. We're not special. In fact, I consider us very privileged to even have a house. Or to afford daycare. Or to take a maternity leave. Or to have a 401K to cash out in the first place. Which is why I was so torn about this post. It's also why I'll be setting my Patreon tier(s) as affordable as possible and asking that only those who can truly afford to give consider a subscription.
I just want to mention, too, that we do not live lavishly. We bought our modest little house (that needs far too much work) from my mom a few years ago, and I can't even remember the last time we went on a real vacation. Our cars are used and paid for. But I'm not posting this expecting pity, or handouts, or anything of the sort. Rather, I'm just trying to help everyone understand why I will be moving more of my activity onto this platform. Really, just in the hopes that I can get paid in some form for that time, and it will also be helping me to work a little less, afford an expanded editing team, and pay off our well over 6-digit student loan debt so that I can do what I truly love to do, and that is write!
Case in point, as I type this, it is 2am and I've been working on this post for almost 3 hours lol. I'm far more limited in my time now, as you may have guessed. Whereas before I would think nothing of pulling a 12-hour writing day and forego sleep and a meal to pour my heart onto pages, now I am limited to about 6 hours per day Monday through Friday on non-day job days because baby and family come first. And that is only if little man is healthy and happy and there are no other "life things" on my plate. Hubbs and I have also been trying very hard to prioritize our health--exercise, cooking, downtime, sleep. Which I totally empathize can feel like insurmountable tasks in today's demanding world💗
At any rate, I think I've said my piece. Now I just want to thank you all so much, from the bottom of my heart, for reading this and for all your support, buying and loving my books. More than that, you are A-mazing, and I love every last one of you💞
I'll share more as soon as I'm able to get the Page up and running. Facebook and this blog will remain active, and I'll post when I can, but as mentioned, all things excerpts, sample chapters, Q&As, giveaways, signed prints, character art, swag, etc. *when available* will be moved to the Patreon Page, and newsletters will only be sent when we have a release or promo.
For now, though, I will stop chatting your ear off and let you get back to whatever you were doing before this blog post took up so much of your time ;)
Hugs Times Infinity,
JM💖
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