May Meeting + Not Every Side Gig is Profitable

Plus: A new fact-checking agency, Whiting Grant Info, More TikTok for Authors

Hello Authors! Here are the details for Tonight’s Meeting: 

Authors Meeting

EDITED: This is the correct time today!
Saturday, May 25 · 5:00 PST, 6 MST, 7 Central, 8 EST

Google Meet joining info:

Video call link

Horse skeletons! Those shots are not properly placed, that’s why so many have 3-4 shots. I have a playlist of videos about these horse skeletons but the situation is actually kind of messed up so be warned.

Fact-Checking Agency

Wudan Yan has started a fact-checking agency! This is sorely needed as 1) Fact-checking is VERY important to a nonfiction, non-memoir book, and 2) When I was looking for one I just had to ask around. I got a lot of EXCELLENT recommendations and I love my fact-checker, but a service like this should save time looking, and I find it a bit more fair. Also, Wudan takes fact-checking pretty seriously, so make sure to read the qualifications before applying. Once the agency is up and running I’ll share it again so you can hire someone! 

If you’re a professional fact-checker, apply here by June 30.

(If you need to hire someone sooner, I can put you in touch with mine, Rachel Fobar, who wrote for Wildlife Watch at Nat Geo and is great! And, I’ll throw my hat in the ring–I have experience fact-checking climate-change claims for PolitiFact and science articles for Aeon and Bay Nature. But I’m really into animals.) 

Whiting Grant Info:

Jennifer Frazer

got some numbers about science writers applying for the Whiting Grant and shared this:

I wrote to the Whiting Foundation to ask how many applications for their creative nonfiction book grant they had received this year and of those, how many were classified as "Science". I had heard from a past winner that they would like to give the awards to more science and environment books, which made me suspect they don't get many applications from authors of those books. Most past winners have been history or social science books.It took three weeks but I actually heard back from them today. At one of their previous info sessions, they had said they typically get in the high 200s or low 300s total applications every year. Total this year: 253. Science: 11. Environment: 14. All of you going under contract this year should strongly consider applying next year, as the award is intended for books mid-stream. Applications open in early February and close in late April. Put it on your calendar now! $40K + prestige + buzz, and even if you don't win, the judges may surreptitiously help market your book or solicit pitches if they like your stuff, according to past info sessions. https://www.whiting.org/writers/creative-nonfiction-grant

I found 25 horses, two deer, one coyote, and two cattle in this field. Not every pile of dead animals is suspicious but this one was.

Other Substack Recommendations

I haven’t read much of this substack personally but I probably should have before I started writing the book. It’s about organizing writing:

And don’t forget BookSmarts, the newsletter about researching science books. Here’s the newest post:

When the personal is political

Here’s another article jumping off of the viral “No One Buys Books” post I mentioned last time:

Publishers Aren't in Trouble—Writers Are

Some highlights:

• Very few people buy books but those who do buy a LOT. Erika, I believe, mentioned at another meeting that the people who are most likely to buy your science book are people who have bought lot of other science books. So, when you’re considering how much science to put into something, you can, perhaps, lean towards nerdiness.

• This tracks with my experience. If you ask anyone if they “like to read” they’ll probably say yes, and you’re more likely to see a bumper sticker that says “book lover” than “book hater.” But if you ask a random group of people more tangible questions like “What was the last book you read?” you’ll find quite a few people don’t read books, or haven’t since college. And I’m fine with that. Others read a LOT. Which is great too.

• This article celebrates the reach of Substack (and perhaps by extension, online writing in general) because it is so much easier for a free, online article to go viral than a passage in a book. Many of us are journalists and have probably seen that first-hand. I wonder how many people would benefit from reading my book or even just a part of it, but never will because it’s harder to share a physical item or digital book than online-specific content.

• They also discuss the financial benefits of Substack vs book writing. Looks pretty good.

Horse spine with fused lumbar vertebrae

TikTok Info for Writers

1. Here’s an interesting read from Vox: How TikTok Shop ads turned an obscure, inaccurate book into a bestseller. Quote:

[T]he listing for The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies that Garrett linked to has more than 60,000 sales on the TikTok Shop. To put that number in perspective, appearing on a bestseller list generally requires 5,000–10,000 sales in a week.

I suppose you can take a lesson on selling books on TT from this. Maybe the book was successful because the advertisers’ “buy it before it gets banned!” message conveyed urgency. Maybe the fact that the book makes big promises (“cure your every ail!”) and is meant to be used as a functional reference (despite being inaccurate and possibly dangerous) is what makes people want it.

2. One of my several talks on using TikTok for Science Journalists is up online at the Science Journalism Forum, but you need to log in. And I think that means you need to buy a ticket for this year or have bought a ticket for last year.
   

3. Can you build an audience for your book too early?

   As my book gets closer to publication (slated for Fall of 2025) I’m thinking of how I’ll promote it then. I have been building up an audience but I do worry that most of the people who have asked where they can buy my book will forget by then, or lose their fixation, or find some flaw with me and my content.
   
   I will obviously promote my book Carcass on my bone-focused TikTok account, with 209,700 followers at the moment. If the app still functions in the US in the fall of 2025, perhaps I’ll ask people to share their favorite passages, and maybe I can offer a prize raffle for doing so if that’s ok with the publisher. And I’ll definitely ask my publisher to send out a few ARCs.
   

4. Speaking of Advance Reader Copies, SchizophrenicReads reviews a lot of books, mostly nonfiction, so I recommend sending your books/galleys to him if you’re ready for reviews! (Not that I have any idea how that will affect your sales…but if you’re going to send it to someone, he might be the most popular nonfiction book reviewer on TT.)

More horse bones. This guy. owned the property when he was alive. (TW alleged human murder and suicide)

Thoughts:
Just because a Book is a “Side Project” Doesn’t Mean It’s Worth it

Recently I posted a video on why I don’t collect all the skulls I find. Basically, cleaning them takes too much time, so I only collect the ones that are particularly cool, valuable, or already pretty clean. (That said, if you find a big pile of bones/carcasses or something really cool within driving distance of SW Wyoming or the Bay Area of California that I visit sometimes, tell me! Even if I don’t collect, I might just like to go there for the photos.)

One (lovely, I appreciate it, I always appreciate input even if I don’t act on it!) comment on that post said I should just collect all the skulls I find, clean them, and sell them. 

Yes, I love money, but doing a project smartly means considering the cost-benefit analysis. So I asked how much money they make selling. They said they did it full-time while they had no other job and made $5k a year. 

I appreciate the honesty and the specific numbers, always!!! If I could snap my fingers and make every skull I ever found magically clean, researched for legality, listed, advertised, and shipped to a customer, I would certainly snap my fingers for that extra $5k a year. But $5k is not an income that I’d be happy with considering it might take a year of work. It doesn’t matter if it’s a side hustle or a main hustle, calling it “beer money” doesn’t change the fact that it’s a horrible rate. If you like beer wouldn’t you want more beer money for less work?

Considering the wages I earn now and presume I could earn, I not work half a year for $2.5k, I would not work a quarter year for $1.75k, I would not work any amount of time for $2.40/hour. (Obviously, the estimations of bone-cleaning-and-selling-wage are not perfect. I don’t know how many hours this person was working, there are other bone processors whose data would help but their situations and scales are all different, and there are front-end costs like large plastic crates, fish tank heaters, hydrogen peroxide, and molecular deodorizers, not to mention the years of practicing and making mistakes I’ve already put in…)  But as it looks, that’s a bad ROI for me.

Of course, I’ll consider how much I enjoy bone cleaning (I do, but not as much as bone-finding) and how much free time I have (not much in the past year.) Maybe I will spend more time cleaning bones this summer since the book is wrapping up. (You want some horse skulls?) I’m also vaguely conceptualizing selling bone hunts as an AirBnB Experience; I think there’s more money in that…I’ll have to talk to Fish and Game first…Anyway…

This story is something to consider when you’re thinking about writing a book, whether as a side or main hustle. The comments I see from aspiring authors lead me to believe they don’t really understand what they’re getting into financially, so I’d like to encourage more informed and thoughtful decision-making. I see so many comments like “Oh, a $100,000 advance would be great for me! I’ll just go write some paragraphs now!”

YIKES! You don’t just snap your fingers, or even spend a couple of weekends on a book with no experience, no audience, no expertise, and no plan and magically get a $100k advance! BFFRRN.

Every human who writes a book sacrifices something, whether it’s their actual or potential income, time, happiness, relationships, or other projects that might have yielded better results for them. 

(Of course, maybe you’re sacrificing something that wasn’t valuable to you in the first place, like getting drunk every weekend or daily hours of social media scrolling. Consider that, too.)

Gina Denny, a VERY knowledgeable author/editor/publishing professional on TikTok recently posted a great video called “Don’t Quit your Day Job.” This video on the finances of traditional book publishing includes some very clear and real math on how advances tend to work.

Although Denny’s videos are very nuanced, informative, generous, and never sensationalist clickbait, of course not every bit of advice works for everyone–and I should note she tends to focus on fiction, as do most author resources, so YMMV. On that note, of course some people can quit their day jobs to write books–over the last year, writing the Carcass book has been my day job. (Now that it’s wrapping up, I’m more open for freelance–please hire me! Especially if you want me to write something related to animals/death/nature.) 

And I’m not the only one in this group who supports themself completely or mostly as a full-time author! Sometimes book writing is lucrative enough to sustain you, maybe even moreso, at least through the time it takes to write the book.

As I said, there’s more to choosing a gig/hobby/job than just the money; I do lots of stuff for fun and because I believe in it (like running this group! I get almost no money out of it but I am glad to share advice and learn from you!)

(On that note, here’s my How-to-Support:)

This newsletter/group is free but I’m very grateful to the paid subscribers. If you want to support me with a different amount of money, I have PayPal. If you would like to donate to a 501(c)3 charity instead, might I suggest a $10 donation to Small Town Community Cats (where I got my beloved Bijou) or Wyoming Arts Alliance, which has been generous to me. I’d love it if you could mention me/ANBIP in the note of the donation, just because I’m curious to see if and how much this may result in.

Are the benefits you will get from book writing and your actual calculations regarding your potential earnings, considering your professional experience, enough of a reason to pursue this with your precious free time? Are you under the impression publishing one single book with no writing experience will make you a Superior Human, emotionally fulfilled and financially sustained forever and ever? Or even that you’ll make more than minimum wage? Why? Have you considered other types of writing, arts, hobbies, jobs, volunteering, or other ways to spend your days, and compared their cost-benefit analyses? 

I’m also not asking you to tell me the answers. I’m not gonna make a choice for you like I’m the Divine Arbiter of Decisions, and I don’t really care. I mean, if you want others to weigh in, you can bring it up in the group meeting and maybe others will share their opinions, but be careful, as others will often give you advice that they themselves would not take because they’re more interested in appearing supportive than actually being helpful.

I just encourage you to ask these things of yourself.