Thank you so much for this! Last year I cried in my fiancee's arms that I would have to work my shitty accounting job for the rest of my life. This year I quit that job and have been making it work as a poet for10 months now. I call it "piece-mealing". Putting together all the different sources and saying a prayer it's enough haha. Your inspiration has been a huge part of having the courage to try. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Oh I feel you so hard on the accounting front. I did an accounting course, finished with honours, and when I sat down to do the job... Realized there's no chance I'm doing this the rest of my life. Hundreds of dollars down the tubes for something I don't even like.
Ok wait so this is actually possible in the actual real world? It’s the musician in me asking as I’m pouring day after day into a corporate finance job.
Maria, you are fucking awesome, I'm so pleased you broke free! At the start of 2025 I gave myself a good talking to and said "I'm going to give it a year" and I'll leave my job. A big part of that is pouring myself into my solo exhibition, Memento Vivere, this September in London. Amie too has really helped me feel seen and understood. Thank you Maria for this boost I needed today!
I can totally relate, Maria. I've had a stream of temp gigs over the last five years. I've not been able to get a permanent job anywhere. I've been indifferent at best and hated at worst all of them. I wish I tell the "regular" work world to shove it and just create full time. Hopefully one day.
Thanks for the transparency, Amie. I love how you doing more than just writing fiction gives you a more stable income but also more creative freedom because there is less pressure for your novels to earn you your whole living. This is absolutely key. ❤️
Amie takes no prisoners. Or, serves them hot chocolate. Afterwards, they are prisoners no more.
Art is long, life is short. Having reassessed my personal priorities, I am looking at happiness this way:
1) Getting what I dream is not happiness.
2) Happiness is the way to getting what I desire.
Dreamers are not:
1) wafflers
2) self-deceiving
3) ego-tripping, frippy-dips needing a good slap of reality
4) time-wasters, boorish
All those time and love hoarders who told me I am wasting my time, or, worse, I am ONLY a dreamer, I can say, once I figure this out, like an oyster fashioning a pearl, I will thank you.
This is great! As a writer with a working class background, I find the lack of conversation around money in the arts so frustrating, like it's some dirty little secret. There seems to be some weird culture that you shouldn't want money. I find this to be a very middle class arts idea (in the UK class system) But money has literally given me education, time and space to create. Of course I want money, of course I want my art. I want both. I recently ran some writing workshops in my local community and felt a lot of guilt charging money for it. But, I stuck with it because I know my time and ideas have value.
Thanks for your dedication to taking creatives with your Amie. I adore it every time you share something with us. I’ve learned so much from you. THANK YOU from my creative heart 💜
Thank you! I never thought about splitting things into revenue streams, and I appreciated your thoughts on what you monetize and what you don’t. (Because I am just starting out still and in the building phase slowly) I’d be interested to hear how you both did the research to set up your small business(es?). The finances bit is not my strong suit but a necessary part of it all. Thanks again and looking forward to continue following what you do!
We didn't stress too much about getting it perfect. We slowly cobbled together something that worked. At the beginning things should be simply enough that you can do most of it yourself. We still don't have a complicated corporate structure. In Australia, where we are tax resident, you can just operate a business as one or two individuals. It doesn't require any complicated setup. We may incorporate in the future but think it's easier to just run it as individuals for now.
If you're talking about taxes and payments, same thing. Find anything that works right now as long as it's legit. Stripe and Paypal are generally easy to set up.
For taxes, all our business related bank accounts just feed straight into Xero and whenever we get a receipt we just take a photo of it and send it to the app or, if it's an email invoice, forward it straight to Xero's receipt manager, Hubdock. We did this ourselves until about a year ago, including coding all the transactions into categories (travel, subscriptions etc.) but now the book keeper does it for us. I just double check their work at the end of the quarter.
Love this Amy. As an independent full time artist I think I would’ve more or less answered the same when it comes to a majority of the questions…. Having multiple income streams, be flexible as to how they vary, fluctuating months, cry about taxes (it’s my area…. It’s fucking hard as we’ve been moving around a lot too so not a single accountant in sight who wants to support at a human price…. Oh well), and the absolute rage against everyone who says it isn’t possible. I’ve been traditional and self published, sell original art works and digital training…. It’s all a mashup of magic isn’t it. You go girl 💖
Thank you so much for sharing this, Amie. Helpful to know how things are actually operating BTS. You and James have always been incredibly generous with this.
My question is: Has there been an income stream that you tried on for size but it didn’t work out and so you scrapped it? Or, has it been that whatever viable path you thought of/discovered, you’ve kept it around long enough until it ultimately became profitable?
This ties into my bigger question of: How long do you keep at something before saying ‘nope, nothing can be generated from here. Lets move on’?
Love this question Esha, we tried patreon and it DID NOT work for me. It was too much work, ontop of the huge amount of writing I was already providing for free. Plus, it made me around 30 bucks a month. We have chosen not to monetize our substack too for now, because we learnt last time. I had it for probably eight months?? Before I let it go. It's hard to know when to just scrap something. For me, the fact I really wasn't enjoying it was a good sign that it needed to change.
Hi Amie! I've been following you for a few years on Instagram under different Instagram accounts. I've always been encouraged by your material and work!
I've got a lot of illnesses for the past 20 years and I've even been called stupid with my hands at janitor jobs I tried out and lasted only for 3 days.
My family has nagged at me for older self-published books because I never knew how to promote them. And I didn't get much sales from them, by now they're out of print.
My older sister officially told me to make ebooks and online courses forever from now.
Now that I'm "forced by circumstances" to be a full time writer/author/poet, I'm getting cold feet. What if I'm a total failure? I'm trying to write daily. I'm trying to write more books now under this pen name.
Fiona. If you don't mind me saying: I love you. I see you. I'm very proud of you. Cold feet is fucking natural. I have cold feet, and I mean this, every day. When we do brave things, we risk failure. And you will fail. But please know that failure is never a full stop. Ever. Keep taking this one baby step at a time. Write a little bit each day and see where it takes you. We Need Your Art.
This is one of the most insightful posts I've read in awhile! As someone trying to transition my career from the corporate world to full time "creative" (I like that term!) this gave hope and clarity on realistic expectations.
Thank you so much for this! Last year I cried in my fiancee's arms that I would have to work my shitty accounting job for the rest of my life. This year I quit that job and have been making it work as a poet for10 months now. I call it "piece-mealing". Putting together all the different sources and saying a prayer it's enough haha. Your inspiration has been a huge part of having the courage to try. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I am in awe of you Maria. I am so fucking glad you quit accounting. There is so much magic ahead for you.
For sure <3 Sending so much love!
Oh I feel you so hard on the accounting front. I did an accounting course, finished with honours, and when I sat down to do the job... Realized there's no chance I'm doing this the rest of my life. Hundreds of dollars down the tubes for something I don't even like.
Congratulations on saying YES to you and your poetry this way! ✨✨✨
thank you Megan!
Yay! 🥳
thank you! <3
Ok wait so this is actually possible in the actual real world? It’s the musician in me asking as I’m pouring day after day into a corporate finance job.
It’s possible!
Maria, you are fucking awesome, I'm so pleased you broke free! At the start of 2025 I gave myself a good talking to and said "I'm going to give it a year" and I'll leave my job. A big part of that is pouring myself into my solo exhibition, Memento Vivere, this September in London. Amie too has really helped me feel seen and understood. Thank you Maria for this boost I needed today!
Thank you so much for this love! <3
No, thank YOU!
Love this Maria. I did the same with my corporate career, and so excited to focus on my writing.
I did full time writing for a year and found it so tough that I went back to accounting 😂 (albeit part time)
💜💜💜
YES. So cool!!!!!!!! LOVE HEARING THIS.
What exactly did you mean by piece-mealing? Is that with your own poetry?
I can totally relate, Maria. I've had a stream of temp gigs over the last five years. I've not been able to get a permanent job anywhere. I've been indifferent at best and hated at worst all of them. I wish I tell the "regular" work world to shove it and just create full time. Hopefully one day.
Thanks for the transparency, Amie. I love how you doing more than just writing fiction gives you a more stable income but also more creative freedom because there is less pressure for your novels to earn you your whole living. This is absolutely key. ❤️
Thanks for sharing so openly, and also demonstrating good boundaries around sharing! You work hard! That is clear 👌
Amie takes no prisoners. Or, serves them hot chocolate. Afterwards, they are prisoners no more.
Art is long, life is short. Having reassessed my personal priorities, I am looking at happiness this way:
1) Getting what I dream is not happiness.
2) Happiness is the way to getting what I desire.
Dreamers are not:
1) wafflers
2) self-deceiving
3) ego-tripping, frippy-dips needing a good slap of reality
4) time-wasters, boorish
All those time and love hoarders who told me I am wasting my time, or, worse, I am ONLY a dreamer, I can say, once I figure this out, like an oyster fashioning a pearl, I will thank you.
This is great! As a writer with a working class background, I find the lack of conversation around money in the arts so frustrating, like it's some dirty little secret. There seems to be some weird culture that you shouldn't want money. I find this to be a very middle class arts idea (in the UK class system) But money has literally given me education, time and space to create. Of course I want money, of course I want my art. I want both. I recently ran some writing workshops in my local community and felt a lot of guilt charging money for it. But, I stuck with it because I know my time and ideas have value.
Thanks for your dedication to taking creatives with your Amie. I adore it every time you share something with us. I’ve learned so much from you. THANK YOU from my creative heart 💜
Thank you! I never thought about splitting things into revenue streams, and I appreciated your thoughts on what you monetize and what you don’t. (Because I am just starting out still and in the building phase slowly) I’d be interested to hear how you both did the research to set up your small business(es?). The finances bit is not my strong suit but a necessary part of it all. Thanks again and looking forward to continue following what you do!
We didn't stress too much about getting it perfect. We slowly cobbled together something that worked. At the beginning things should be simply enough that you can do most of it yourself. We still don't have a complicated corporate structure. In Australia, where we are tax resident, you can just operate a business as one or two individuals. It doesn't require any complicated setup. We may incorporate in the future but think it's easier to just run it as individuals for now.
If you're talking about taxes and payments, same thing. Find anything that works right now as long as it's legit. Stripe and Paypal are generally easy to set up.
For taxes, all our business related bank accounts just feed straight into Xero and whenever we get a receipt we just take a photo of it and send it to the app or, if it's an email invoice, forward it straight to Xero's receipt manager, Hubdock. We did this ourselves until about a year ago, including coding all the transactions into categories (travel, subscriptions etc.) but now the book keeper does it for us. I just double check their work at the end of the quarter.
Happy to answer any specific questions!
Thank you! That’s super helpful, I really appreciate your thoughtful response.
Love this Amy. As an independent full time artist I think I would’ve more or less answered the same when it comes to a majority of the questions…. Having multiple income streams, be flexible as to how they vary, fluctuating months, cry about taxes (it’s my area…. It’s fucking hard as we’ve been moving around a lot too so not a single accountant in sight who wants to support at a human price…. Oh well), and the absolute rage against everyone who says it isn’t possible. I’ve been traditional and self published, sell original art works and digital training…. It’s all a mashup of magic isn’t it. You go girl 💖
Don’t seem to able to change the autocorrect spelling of your name…. I’m sorry Amie! 🙏🏼🫣🫶🏼
Thank you so much for sharing this, Amie. Helpful to know how things are actually operating BTS. You and James have always been incredibly generous with this.
My question is: Has there been an income stream that you tried on for size but it didn’t work out and so you scrapped it? Or, has it been that whatever viable path you thought of/discovered, you’ve kept it around long enough until it ultimately became profitable?
This ties into my bigger question of: How long do you keep at something before saying ‘nope, nothing can be generated from here. Lets move on’?
Love this question Esha, we tried patreon and it DID NOT work for me. It was too much work, ontop of the huge amount of writing I was already providing for free. Plus, it made me around 30 bucks a month. We have chosen not to monetize our substack too for now, because we learnt last time. I had it for probably eight months?? Before I let it go. It's hard to know when to just scrap something. For me, the fact I really wasn't enjoying it was a good sign that it needed to change.
That is a good sign and eight months is long enough to try. Thanks for sharing, Amie!
Thank you, really appreciate the honesty and transparency
Hi Amie! I've been following you for a few years on Instagram under different Instagram accounts. I've always been encouraged by your material and work!
I've got a lot of illnesses for the past 20 years and I've even been called stupid with my hands at janitor jobs I tried out and lasted only for 3 days.
My family has nagged at me for older self-published books because I never knew how to promote them. And I didn't get much sales from them, by now they're out of print.
My older sister officially told me to make ebooks and online courses forever from now.
Now that I'm "forced by circumstances" to be a full time writer/author/poet, I'm getting cold feet. What if I'm a total failure? I'm trying to write daily. I'm trying to write more books now under this pen name.
Fiona. If you don't mind me saying: I love you. I see you. I'm very proud of you. Cold feet is fucking natural. I have cold feet, and I mean this, every day. When we do brave things, we risk failure. And you will fail. But please know that failure is never a full stop. Ever. Keep taking this one baby step at a time. Write a little bit each day and see where it takes you. We Need Your Art.
Thanks Amie for all the wonderful insight and inspiring write up, giving lot of details and encouragement too.
Very cool you’re sharing this!!
Thank you for the 'I'm not alone'-feeling :)
This was the first thing I read this morning, and it inspired me so much. We can all accomplish our dreams, and you show us that
This is one of the most insightful posts I've read in awhile! As someone trying to transition my career from the corporate world to full time "creative" (I like that term!) this gave hope and clarity on realistic expectations.