The Real Cost of Writing Full-Time

Quitting a stable job to write full-time sounds bold, until you hear what it actually takes. Author Carla Vergot, a former special education teacher and the voice behind the Lily Barlow series, joins us to talk about the moment a planned sabbatical became a life pivot, including her husband's cancer diagnosis, which arrived just as she left teaching. She shares how writing became both an escape and a survival tool, and why that pressure pushed her stories to be lighter, funnier, and more hopeful.We also get practical about building a sustainable author career: growing a Facebook reader group that feels like a community rather than a sales feed, booking bookstore signings, experimenting with TikTok, booking podcasts through PodMatch, and navigating publisher changes with Morgan James. If you care about the real writing life—doubt, momentum, and craft—this one's for you. Subscribe, share it with a writer friend, and leave a review.Send us Fan MailSupport the show📬 JOIN THE NEWSLETTERThe Storyteller Quest is  a weekly letter on writing,publishing, and the business of books.Subscribe, and I'll send you Traditional, Self, or Hybrid? —11 pages on what each publishing path really costs, plus a7-question worksheet that tells you which one is yours.Subscribe here.