Why I Like September

Yes, September is grand for the start of autumn, back-to-school, football, apples picking. But I like it because that's when I get my royalty statement from Brooklyn Publishers. A lot of playwrights have never heard of Brooklyn, because they specialize in the high school market. They sell a lot of duets for use in forensics and drama competitions. In this case, the students (or their drama teachers) buy the scripts (8-12 minute pieces) by the script book ($4.50 each) and don't have to pay performance royalties as long as they only perform the pieces in competition.

Brooklyn publishes more then 30 of my plays, most of them duets, but also some one-acts. This past year they sold 963 copies, and licensed the plays for 20 performances. I like the idea of so many budding young theatre artists using my work to cut their teeth as actors, and showing off the work to their friends and families. The cool thing is that I wrote these plays for use by grown ups (they get staged by small professional theatres every year, too), but the kids really enjoy them, too. (Since I started with Brooklyn, they've sold almost 10,000 copies of my plays, which feels like a nice solid amount to a numbers guy like me.)

And I like that I get paid. It's not a lot, but it's a healthy enough check to cover most of my basic writing expenses for the year (if I'm frugal). When the check comes, it makes me feel like a professional writer. And that's a nice feeling.