Part of me acting more professionally as an author last year, was that I logged what activities I did, and my word count against each project each day. I had been logging word count for a while, but towards the end of 2018 I started logging time as well. Part of that was to see how close I was getting to the Dutch tax target of 1225 hours worked a year for entrepreneur’s tax relief. (And the answer was not very!) But also so I could have a better idea of how much I was actually doing.
Now, last year ended up being less productive than planned as the house renovation took more effort than I had anticipated, but the numbers are still interesting to look at. So here, really for my record rather than anything else, are some statistics about what I achieved in 2019:
- I wrote a total of 130,356 words;
- I worked a total of 503.4 hours;
- I published three books – two non-fiction and a collection of short stories;
- I spent two and a half times more hours editing my non-fiction books than I did writing them;
- I also wrote on four different fiction projects I have for the future, as well as this blog, my journal, more short stories and notes for new ideas that I may take further in the future;
- I wrote the most words, and spent the most time, on my non-fiction books;
- The activity I logged the second highest amount of time to was admin;
- The project I wrote the second highest number of words for is my dragon shifter story.
I am almost finished with the first draft of my dragon shifter book, and I’m preparing the details to make the preorder live. So watch this space for news in the next few weeks. I’ve shared the cover with everyone on my newsletter, so if you’re interested in getting my news first then sign up.
This interested me, so I did the math. To satisfy the Dutch tax code, you would have to work 3 hours and 36 minutes EVERY day of the year. As anyone who writes knows, 3 hours of actual writing is both an exhilarating and draining experience–you need to recharge. And it’s impossible to expect someone to do that 365 days a year, year after year. To write, as you know, you need to leave your desk and get out into life before you can return to your desk. Writing, it’s not like fixing a car or selling widgets.
Yes, it is a high bar. It’s more hours than the children are at school. Which is one of the reasons why it’s difficult to achieve.
But while writing is one activity that would contribute that’s not the only one. Anything that contributes towards my “business” of being an author. So social media, audience building, stalking Amazon to find new books in my genre, blogging, keeping track of expenses, following a course, updating adverts, supporting 10 minute novelists/365 challenge, etc … would all be non writing activities that count towards that total of hours worked.
That being said it’s not a target I’m aiming for as it is high, and until I register with the Dutch tax office I have no reason to force myself to work that much! I like to think I’m working up to it, but not for a few years!