My First Novel Sold for €160,000

And I saw zero of it

How to Build a Life is a newsletter for people bang in the thick of life’s mess and mayhem, who are still trying to find the magic. It’s written by me, Laura Jane Williams, author of 12 (!) books. I’m almost 40, a solo parent by choice, decorate my house like a tart’s boudoir, and lift very heavy weights. Those four things are my entire personality.

My latest rom-com is Enemies to Lovers, and I am the author of teen series Taylor Blake is a Legend too.

I don’t think you can talk about How to Build A Life – the point of this newsletter – without talking about money.

Behind closed doors I am quite open about money. When you’re on the no-fixed-income train, it helps to get to know your fellow self-employed passengers and their financial stories too, because the ride can be WILD.

Who earns what and how they spend it and how they save it is super interesting to me, particularly amongst women. I love knowing how you budget your income, how you think about a pension, and savings, and the future; how you handle your kid’s feet growing and needing new shoes every three months, how you budget and save for summer holidays and Christmas and the food shop.

(In fact, in typing all that… Shall I do a post on how I do those things, so that we can open the comments to how you do them and all learn from each other? Okay, deal. I’ll add it to the list!)

I’m also just super nosey, so I love hearing other people’s money stories: how they got it, how it felt, if they’ve ever lost it. In private, I often tell the story of how my first novel sold for €160,000… and I saw zero of it. Now I’d like to share that story with you. That’s what I’m here for, after all. The sharing.