The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
None of these jobs pays particularly well. If any of my employers are reading this, I love you, but it’s true. You don’t pay particularly well. When I imagined the life of a freelance writer way back when, I thought maybe I’d wake up in the morning, have a glass of orange juice and a coffee, spend four hours writing about some interesting topic, and then go about enjoying my life. Instead, I am sitting inside a rented office all by myself for 60+ hours/week, expending every available brain cell on writing that basically pays me just enough to rent the office.
And then, there’s this. Awkward Press. I built this website by myself. I don’t know anything about websites, but I built this one. I am writing almost all of the content. I am sending out press releases, getting party invitations made, planning a party in New York where I do not live, commiserating with designers, programming online shopping carts, seeking out reviews, and trying to figure out how in the hell I am going to make my money back. And finding random followers on Twitter to come to our site and read material that has not been updated in three days. I am doing all these things, on top of all of those other things that I just mentioned.
I have partners. I love my partners. I love them to death. They are great friends and they have been great partners. I am purposely doing many of these things that I am doing because I want to be able to say I did them. They are more than willing to work, but many of the things they are unable to do. You will soon be seeing more of them, I promise. So please do not think that I am saying my partners are not helping me. They are very, very busy as well. Clay just got married and is teaching and is writing a musical with Bruce Hornsby. Kyle is in a band and is in the middle of writing like fifteen different projects. We are all just trying to make it through the day in a world that does not place a huge value on the creative professions. I am also intensely grateful to my friend Mike Segretto, who has stepped up to help me add content to the site with his amazing and hilarious movie reviews. We have one coming tomorrow in honor of the 25th anniversary of Purple Rain that may very well be his finest hour. (Also, be sure to swing by his website Psychobabble, which features too many cool reviews and essays to mention.)
This has been a pretty stressful week. It is great, don’t get me wrong. I am grateful that I have work to do in this world in which many people do not have work to do. And the only injury I can possibly sustain at my job is a sore ass. In that respect, I suppose I am living the homo superior dream life.
But I guess the reason I am writing this is because I could really use some help. A friendly comment on this post. Add the site to your feed reader, or bookmark it. If you live in New York, show up at our party and buy a couple of drinks. I promise it will exceed your wildest dreams in terms of an entertaining evening.
And please, please buy a copy of the book when I finally figure out how to set up the online shopping cart. I will make sure you get your book in a timely manner, because I will be going to the post office and putting it in the mailbox by myself. This is a labor of love from someone who really just wants to make people laugh and help out some friends who I think are great writers. In the meantime, any help you can give us is appreciated. We promise we’ll do our best to return the favor some day.
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Keep it up! I love your posts and I will be at the party!
1Yay!
It's an awesome sight. My only advice would be if you could be a little more funny that would be cool. Other than that it is relatively entertaining, although I do have a lot of time on my hands right know, soo... Stay Ackward.
2I demand a re-printing of The Disappearance of Portland: Forty Years Later.
And the death of CP makes me genuinely sad.
3Hey Jeff,
It's Rebecca Platt's husband Charlie. She forwarded this to me. I have to say, I find it quite hilarious.
4Hey, my dad actually just switched fields into a green collar job. I can put you in touch with him if you're hard up for material.
Don't stop writing.
5Thanks, everyone! I really appreciate the support. And Jef, I'm totally going to take you up on that offer ... I'll get in touch through the usual channels!
6Is it too late to chime in? I realize this was written on July 28th, and this is the internet, after all, but what the hell.
I am one of the random people who found you via Twitter! Though it was through Infinite Summer (which I'm now totally behind on, stupid school and stupid work, grr grr) rather than whatever you were talking about up there.
I, for one, am very impressed with everything you're doing. I love the content you put on this site, and I promise to add you to my Google Homepage right now.
...Ok, done.
I would attend your party if it were in Boston instead of NY. Can you move it up here?
Good luck with everything, Jeffrey!! Keep on keeping on, man.
7Thank you, Yoshi! That's really nice of you to say. I'm sure if this thing works out, we'll get to Boston one of these days!
8I am way late commenting on this, but if you're looking for more people to talk to about that whole green collar thing, my husband does water testing/planning for storm water systems and all that and I'm sure would be happy to talk to you if that's something that would be useful.
I will gladly buy the first awkward book when you get that shopping cart thing up and running!
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