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I had five books under contract at once, plus the enormous task of building and maintaining an author brand. I had no idea and was not told upon entering the program how nearly impossible it is to find work as faculty in any college or university, regardless of how qualified you are.

I could have and now wish more than anything that I had paid off my student loans. I could have put myself on a strict budget — one that assumed I was never going to get big payouts as a writer again.

I could have saved a down payment for a house. And I could have put money aside each year for retirement. As the royalty statements came in, and a foreign book contract was dropped due to low sales, my worry began to grow. One sent me on tour, which is about as luxe as it can get for an author, but very few people showed up at the events, and that was that.

Fast-forward to my third book deal, for a contemporary novel. Bloom Discovery Award , garnered several starred reviews, had multiple books on important lists, and worked hard on author-branding and social media. What other job would lower your salary after getting such great performance reviews? But no one tells you your numbers, so I really had no idea where I stood. Never mind that the book was critically praised and had made some of those nice lists.

It is a business, after all. Which is fair… to a point. In reality, they were paying me less than half the salary of a local public-school teacher. I do more marketing than most marketing professionals, including loads of promotional work such as interviews, guest posts, and podcast appearances.

My publishers have never made so much as a bookmark for me though twice they agreed to design them if I paid for the printing. If I wanted to go to a book festival or important industry conference out of town, I had to pay, unless the festival organizer covered the costs, which they rarely do. I have a book coming out next year that is getting more marketing attention already, but I know better than to get my hopes up. None of the people in the room so to speak warned that the next time around the advance might be lower.

At the end of the day, I decided that this book deal was better than no book deal. We signed the papers, and made a wish. In retrospect, I should have taken that two-book deal. The smaller the advances got, the more strain I began to experience. While no amount of mentorship could have determined the outcome of my book sales, it would have helped me make more informed decisions about the books I did sell, and how I spent the money I earned.

Added to the financial despair was shame, depression, and fear. All I could think was that I had wasted the one opportunity the universe had given me to write my way out. This, as an author published by Big Five publishers, with multiple books out, still more under contract, a PEN award, and critical acclaim.

I pivoted, creating new projects that challenged me to no end and were way outside my comfort zone. While I was genuinely excited by them, I was also fighting with everything in me to stay in the game, to not let my dream of being a lifelong professional writer slip through my grasp after a brief flirtation with the big time. Of course, I also needed to keep money coming in while trying very hard to write things I cared about, and improve my craft with each project.

Perhaps I put on too good a face. However, the issue with prewritten adventures is that they tend to be expensive. Third-party adventures generally cost money as well, meaning the DM is forced to throw down hard-earned money to get an adventure going unless nice players are willing to chip in.

Thankfully, there are plenty of content creators who are willing to offer their hard work for free! Not only is one of the most useful tools for the game, but it also offers a series of free encounters you can use for a quick session with your friends.

Some of these are among the best ever written. You may need to wait a while before you can browse! You are commenting using your WordPress.

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