business

Industrialization and mega corporations have been the death of cottage industry. It used to be that every town had a local grocer, bookstore, cobbler, jeweler, etc. The advent of mass production meant that the majority of people were no longer willing to pay the price for handcrafted items. The few left who did, were not enough to keep the small businesses running. This has changed. The internet provides a way for cottage industries to thrive again. It is possible for someone to make a living handcrafting jewelry because the whole world is available as a marketplace.

Obviously my family has benefited directly from this trend. Schlock Mercenary succeeds because people all over the world are able to read it and buy books. We were able to print the books ourselves and send them directly to the people rather than being forced to go begging for an alliance with a corporate publisher. We may eventually hand some of the work over to a corporate partner to reduce the burden on our family, but we will enter into that partnership from a position of strength.

I like the thought that there is space in the world for craftsmen again. I like that someone with skill and the love of the work can succeed. I want to be able to support such endeavors. I want to buy from artisans and craftspersons.

From a business standpoint, having me attend Conduit made no sense. I added additional expenses without adding any additional revenue. From a personal standpoint, Conduit was a wonderful success. I got all the things I was hoping for. I talked to many people about my picture book project and they were all excited and interested. Several of them asked to be emailed when the book is available. I learned some more about the publishing industry. And I got to have delightful conversations with many wonderful people.

Julie Wright and I had a marvelous conversation about her projects and my projects. She has some very cool projects in the making and I’m excited to see them do well. I can’t say much more though because I don’t want to steal her thunder. Julie has published three books in the LDS fiction market and is now trying to break into the national market. I know it is just a matter of time before she makes it because her writing is delightful. She’s also a delightful person to talk to. We claimed a bench and chattered like pre-teen girls for more than an hour until Howard came to find where I was.

Julie and I then rounded up a dinner crew which included Howard, Lee Modesit, James Dashner, Eric Stone, and Jim Van Pelt. We all walked over to a nearby food court to eat and discussed the business side of writing. James is contemplating quitting his day job next year and had many questions about health insurance and money management. We also got to hear a lot about the LDS Storymaker’s conference in which both Julie and James were very involved.

Earlier in the day the convention was made delightful by the fact that Janci made it there. It was fun to stand and talk to her and share observations about the convention and some of the costumes. I wish she could have stayed longer, but her ride wanted to leave. Another fun thing is that I got to make a useful comment in a panel about getting manuscripts published. It was a tip that I got from Janci. If you use the “See Inside” feature on the Amazon.com website there is often a link for “Text Stats” which tells you the word count and all sorts of other useful data about the book you’re looking at. This is an incredibly useful tool for figuring out how long your novel should be for the market you intend to pitch it to.

Almost the first thing we did at the convention was talk for a few minutes with David Weber and his wife. He is a very nice man and his wife is delightful to talk to. I got to see pictures of their beautiful children. I would have liked more time to sit down and talk business things with them, but the only other time I saw him was at his official signing when he had a line of people 30 deep waiting for him to sign books. It was a very impressive line. I hope that some day Howard can have lines like that.

Howard is back at Conduit today. I’m here at home with the kids. I don’t mind. I had my day of fun. Now I need to cuddle all the little people who missed me yesterday. It is nice to be missed.

There have been many social events during the past week. They were all good and fun. I’m glad we had them all. But the introverted part of me is now rebelling. She just wants to curl up some place quiet and peaceful with no people in it. She wants to stay there until she is good and ready to come out. Unfortunately as a mother I can’t spend 5 minutes in the bathroom without someone pounding on the door. Arranging for my kids to be elsewhere requires me to talk to people which is one of the things that my introvert is rebelling against. I did get a nap today. It was short, but it was only interrupted once so that is better than average.

I have today and tomorrow to get all this introversion out of my system. On Saturday I drop my kids with friends and relatives so that I can spend the day at a convention with Howard. I’ve been looking forward to Conduit for months. Now it is almost here and I don’t feel ready. My picture book is in the final stages of layout before sending off to the printer, but it isn’t done yet. I wish it were done so I’d have books to show everyone. I still haven’t heard back on the Czerneda anthology so I don’t know if I have a success to rejoice over or a rejection to recover from. The second anthology may not happen at all. All my projects are still pending.

I want to go to Conduit and have dozens of fascinating conversations. I want to come home invigorated. I want to take all of that energy and dive into a summer schedule that includes learning activities for the kids and lots of writing for me. These goals are hard to achieve while huddling in bed to hide from people. Perhaps a second nap is called for.

Next Monday morning we leave for our big trip to Seattle. I’m starting to pack and pull together Plan A for the trip. I suspect that by the time we pull out of the driveway we’ll already be on Plan B and before the trip is over we’ll be on Plan M or N. I’m trying to build this flexibility into the planning. Already every day that we’re in Seattle has something in it. Most days have two or three things. It is going to be a very busy trip, but I think we’re all going to really enjoy it.

Howard will be announcing this either tonight or tomorrow, but there will be an official Schlock Meet & Greet on Thursday March 29 from 6:30-11 pm. The host for this event has asked that we not publish his address on the internet, but if you want the address and directions use livejournal.com to email sandratayler. I’ll respond with directions. The event will be potluck, if everyone brings food to share there will be plenty to go around. We’ll provide plates, cups, and silverware. Howard and I do not drink alcohol, but our host says he does not mind if people bring their own so long as the drinkers are of legal age and have someone else to drive them home.

The other place to catch up with us is at Emerald City Comic Con. Howard will be there all day both days. The kids and I will pass through for awhile on Saturday. I’m guessing the kids and I will be at the con in the morning and elsewhere for the afternoon, but that is one of those things which will change on the fly.

Between now and then I need to do piles of laundry and pack everything up. It is going to be interesting getting it all organized. I’ll be packing for a convention appearance and a family trip at the same time. Both things have very different requirements. In addition I have to pack school stuff for the kids since they’ll be missing 8 days of school. Each day I’ll be making them create a journal/scrapbook page detailing what we did that day and what they thought about it. When they get back they’ll have to report to their classes about the trip. Then I’ll gather up all the pages and put them together with photos to create a Tayler family scrapbook. It is a lovely plan. I hope I can actually follow through with it during the middle of vacation chaos.

Yesterday I was talking with a neighbor and during the conversation it came out that I write short fiction and that I blog. She already knew that I do all the shipping for Schlock Mercenary. Add to that taking care of 4 kids and doing the Webelos job and she was prepared to be completely impressed with how much stuff I manage regularly. Not only was she impressed, but she was also ready to be down on herself because she wasn’t doing all of that.

I have to acknowledge that yes I get lots of stuff done daily. But everything in life has an opportunity cost. For everything that I do, there are myriad things that I don’t do. Some of the things I don’t do are things that I have no desire to do. Others are things that I used to do, but don’t right now. Still others are things that I’ve never done, but always felt that I ought to do. For my own amusement and enlightenment I have decided to list the things that I don’t do:

Decorate my house (I wish my house was beautiful, but I never spend the time or money to make it so.)
Scrub bathrooms (I really should do this more.)
Wipe baseboards (Never done it, not once. But I know a woman who does it regularly.)
Scrapbook (I used to. I may again. But now I just don’t have the time)
Be involved in PTA (I occasionally donate money, but no time.)
Be a room parent (class party planning isn’t something I would enjoy.)
Decorate for the Holidays (A little for christmas, nothing for the others)
Dress kids nicely daily (I see children who are always dressed perfectly with beautifully done hair. My kids dress themselves. Matching is optional.)
Make beds (Howard makes our bed, I almost never do. Thanks honey!)
Dust (Ditto on the should do this more.)
Take kids to the library (I was great at this last year. Haven’t done it once this year. Maybe next year.)
Take kids to museums/parks/zoos (Maybe during the summer…)
Dress nicely every day (Sometimes I get into bed and realize I haven’t even brushed my hair during the day.)
Wear make-up (rarely, for special occasions)
Pedicures/manicures (I stick to “not ragged” as my criteria for good nails.)
Mop (Again with the “should do this more”)

The list could go on, but I don’t want to depress myself. The key point here is that the things I spend my day doing reflect my core values. I can not do it all. No one can. So we each have to pick the things that are most important to us. My list of important things will be very different from someone else’s list. That’s okay so long as we are all putting our important things first

Last night I stayed up until 2 am talking with Nancy and Raisinfish. It was one of those marvelous conversations where time is irrelevant. I remember looking at my watch at 9:30. The next time I looked it was after midnight, but I was enjoying the conversation too much to mention the late hour. Then it was 2 am. I do not at all regret that conversation. Opportunities like that are all too rare.

Today I put aside convention thoughts, and writing thoughts, and Schlock book thoughts. I had to bury myself in state and federal tax forms. I had the usual batch of quarterly reports with attending forms and checks. Then I had the annual reports with attending forms and checks. This was all further complicated because we passed an income threshold last year which changed some of the rules. I now have a monthly report and check to do. It took a trip down to the local IRS office to get that set up properly. Being an employer is really complicated even if you only have one employee. But the reports are done and everything is in the mail. Now I just have to do the regular weekly accounting and assemble all the paperwork so that we can actually file our taxes and hopefully get a refund. That appointment is Friday. Whee.

I’ve entered contests before. Just last year I entered a blog writing contest where I had to write a blog on the contest’s topic. I was dancing on clouds when I was chosen as a finalist. Then when I didn’t even place, I cried. I tried very hard not to base my feelings of self worth on that contest lost. Eventually I picked up, moved on, and it no longer hurts anymore.

Today I was on the other side of that experience. Thirteen artists submitted pictures in hopes of being selected for my book project. At first I was delighted and flattered that so many people would care to work with me. So many people looked at a few lines of text and trusted that the rest of the book would be good. Each set of pictures was accompanied by an email filled with hope. I realized that each of these artists was in the same position that I was in with the blogging contest. Each hoped to be selected and have their art reaffirmed. I exchanged several emails with some of the artists. I came to know them just a little. In the end, only one artist could be used for the book. I had to write 12 emails which I knew would disappoint the recipients.

The judge in the blogging contest rambled for several sentences about how difficult it was to choose and how she wished she could choose everyone. As one of the unchosen, I felt like she was just being polite. But now I know she was telling bare truth. It is hard to choose. I wish I could choose everyone. Each of the artists who submitted was fully capable of illustrating a children’s book. There were things that I liked about every one of them. In the end, one set of images just clicked with me and with the spirit of the story I wrote. This does not mean that the other submissions were faulty. They just didn’t click for me as strongly as the one artist I selected.

This coming Friday Howard will be blogging about all of the artists who submitted. Hopefully this will send some exciting projects in the direction of the artists. I see no reason that everyone can’t win from this. I now have contacts with artists and writers both. Hopefully I can help facilitate connections between the two worlds.

I’ve been musing on Opportunity Costs lately.  Opportunity Cost is a term that I learned in my high school economy class.  Opportunity Cost basically means that anything you get requires you to give up something else.  The Opportunity Cost of buying a new stereo is that you are unable to buy a new computer.  The Opportunity Cost of watching a movie is that you’re unable to spend the time playing with kids, or reading a book, or anything else with that time.

I’m pretty convinced that the simplest way to have a happy life is to make sure that the value of the things you choose to do, buy, have, be, outweighs the accompanying opportunity costs. Unfortunately that isn’t always easy to do.  Sometimes the thing we get isn’t happy even though the opportunity cost is much worse.  Getting to stay at an unpleasant job doesn’t make us happy even though unemployment is worse.

This has been on my brain as Howard and I make plans to get from where we are (Employed by Novell, frequently stressed, Schlock barely paying for itself) to where we want to be (Schlock paying for the family, Howard home more, actual free time).  There are large, carefully laid plans for getting us from here to there.  We don’t talk about these plans much because sometimes talking about them would break them.  People ask why there isn’t more merchandise, they ask why don’t we do this thing, or why on earth we did that thing.  Mostly I don’t answer because the answer involves a treatise on economics and Good Business Practice which they didn’t ask for and probably don’t want to listen to anyway.

Howard and I have been running a business for over 10 years.  It has never been a profitable business and the goals of the business have changed significantly, but we’ve learned a lot.  We’ve learned how to be professional.  We’ve learned how to properly account for the money and inventory.  We’ve learned what things we can do for ourselves and when the best solution is to develop relationships with other businesses.  Schlock is building slowly and merchandise is coming slowly because we are making sure that we don’t go running out on a limb and swamp the business with expenses that will kill it.  We went down that road before when we were doing music.  I don’t want to go there again.

It’s all about opportunity costs.  Every penny that goes into shirt production can’t go into book productions.  Which will sell better?  Probably books.  But to prep the book takes time.  Time to find a publisher and distributor.  Time to put the book together.  Every slice of time that goes into Schlock production doesn’t go into Novell, or Family, or relaxation.  Time must be parcelled out carefully or things fall apart.  It is all pretty delecately balanced and trying to move faster will send things crashing and breaking.

Moving slowly when I want to run is incredibly frustrating.  I’m here and I want to be there.  I want to be there right now.