Well, now it gets interesting. That house I used to paint? They just offered me a side gig as an outsourced writer. Pay is decent for a part-time job, but I have to wonder how much bandwidth I want to devote to somebody else's writing franchise. I know the audience wants me back. I know the editorial staff I'd be working with, since a week ago we were co-employees. I have a lot of contacts through that old brand, and that brand has some decent reach--provided I can leverage that to help my own, personal brand--but I don't want to spend my life painting someone else's house. Something to think about.
On the bright side, I've got a lot of potential non-writing work prospects shaping up, mostly on the strength of my work developing online communities. That actually was my day job at the old employer, though I didn't get to do much of it because of resource constraints. I did the writing to fill the time and help the employer's brand. If I get a day job working with online communities, that means I'm using my spare time to write for this side gig, doing sci-fi blogs and trivia questions. That's a lot of fun, but makes me wonder when I'll have time to write fiction--or play with my daughter, watch any movies, attend to my marriage, or have a non-work life of any kind.
Decisions, decision. I told the guy we'd talk tomorrow. Let's see how I feel after my writer's group tonight.
Jay, you've gotta do what you've gotta do... and taking care of the wife and daughter are high on that list.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a letter to Jason on your behalf, and I know I'm not the only one. I actually suggested that if nothing else, he do exactly what it seems he did do.
Now, you have that choice. You can choose to continue to build a brand that isn't yours, but which you are so closely associated with that it can't continue without you in most folks minds (which is a lot better than it sounds... you'll eventually be able to spin it off around you later if you ever do leave for good), or you can start something totally new. New can be risky, but new also has it's own rewards, the biggest being that they can't take it away from you, because it's YOURS.
So, do you continue to invest in Geekend and build up both Geekend and your own identity as the Trivia Geek, or do you build something new, which you have to start much closer to zero (but remember, you DO have some start because of the loyal Geekenders), and try to go for something bigger, newer, that might pay off much, much more, or might never be anything big.
Like you said, decisions, decisions.
Bill