10.03.2026 23:54
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eat yr ❤️ out ny mag 😂
(none of us live in New York, although all of us did at one time or another!)
Image of four women writers with thought bubbles and emojis and the title THE SCRATCH GROUP CHAT - How We Get By
Image of text - dialogue between Maggie and Manjula and Latria about care work, and the choices freelancers have to make re providing care vs working
Image of text - chat transcript of Manjula Martin discussing ways in which she could have made more money from her writing work but didn’t because “the thought of doing that honestly just kind of made me want to die”
In today’s Scratch newsletter, we’re talking $$$ as self-employed writers — income, expenses, debt, care work, insurance, day jobs, exhaustion, and the unquantifiable ways in which we feed our hearts: www.talkscratch.com/the-group-ch...
Cool timing, or not, while Times Guild
members are currently bargaining over AI: newsguild.org/inside-ai-ne...
Coincidentally, this week’s Scratch newsletter is a candid discussion about how the four of us are getting by financially as freelance writers. We talk numbers, money, time, motherhood, chronic pain, and relentless exhaustion. www.talkscratch.com/the-group-ch...
Author With One New York ‘Times’ Best Seller $49,000 $30,000 from book advance $14,000 from teaching two retreats $5,000 from narrating own audiobook I’m trying to manifest more abundance, but I’m really feeling the income streams have dwindled. I have over 800,000 Instagram followers. Before, if I wanted to do a brand partnership on social media, $10,000 was an easy get. Now it’s, like, $500. I pretty much live from a bucket of savings.
Also: checks out
For any writers or avid readers who missed this yesterday 👇🏾
Wooden vase with one red anemone flower on a wood coffee table, and a tarot card: The Sun
🌺🌸🌷🌻🌼🪻
The Scratch collective exists because we believe art matters, that artists matter, and that those who would have us believe otherwise—believe in "content" alone—are worth fighting head-on. My thanks to everyone who spread the word or shared kind ones of their own. Much more to come. talkscratch.com
“We are living through a moment where the labor of writers is being exploited to create rapacious technologies that make everything stupider, exponentially hasten the demise of the planet’s ecosystems, and prop up fascists and dictators worldwide.”
Enter SCRATCH www.talkscratch.com/the-new-scra...
Thanks, Sari!
MAGGIE WE LOVE YOU TOO
so nice to see @saribotton.bsky.social finally get the literary profile treatment in the nyt today. sari has been out here doing the good work for writers for SO LONG, and as a fellow not-young i am extremely grateful to have her in our corner!
haha thx our new album drops next week 🤘
Today in good news: Scratch is back!
@manjula.bsky.social's project to map out how writers make a living was a vital resource from 2012-2018. Today it relaunches, now a joint project with Manjula, @rahawahaile.bsky.social, @maggiemertens.bsky.social & @latriagraham.bsky.social.
Subscribe!
🚨🚨🚨 NEW WORKER OWNED OUTLET ABOUT HOW ANYBODY IS MAKING CREATIVE LIFE WORK RIGHT NOW 🚨🚨🚨 by the absolute fucking legends @rahawahaile.bsky.social @maggiemertens.bsky.social @latriagraham.bsky.social and @manjula.bsky.social. Sign up now or I will come to your house and bully you. www.talkscratch.com
drawing of a notepad with the words SCRATCH - how your favorite writers are surviving (or not)
Image of four women in brightly colored clothing standing in front of a brightly colored mural
We are living through a moment where the labor of writers is being exploited to create rapacious technologies that make everything stupider, exponentially hasten the demise of the planet’s ecosystems, and prop up fascists and dictators worldwide. The concept of a free press isn’t even really a concept anymore. Cartoonishly evil billionaires control mainstream media outlets, which produce content accordingly, and at the local level there’s hardly anything left. And let’s not even mention the book reviews. Or rather, let’s: The increased stratification of race, class, and politics has extended to, and is fundamentally intertwined with, book publishing, in which there now seems to exist only two types of books: mega-bestsellers (mostly celebrity memoirs, political tell-alls that say nothing, too late, and books about dragon sex) and the rest
Scratch is back. It’s a newsletter now—written by me, Latria Graham, @rahawahaile.bsky.social , and @maggiemertens.bsky.social .
And yeah it costs money 💚
www.talkscratch.com/the-new-scra...
New from me, at @vqr.bsky.social: a few years ago two people contacted me about a TEDx talk I once gave, “The Art of Haunting.”
When I replied I’d never given a TEDx talk, things just got weirder.
On AI, ghosts, what it means to tell a story, and what Italo Calvino saw coming 60 years ago. Enjoy!
OH HECK YES
Congratulations to Little Brown for getting to publish this genius person and her brilliant book, and also to ALL OF US bc we get to read it soon!!
cc who pays writers 😭
My Friday newsletter for @niemanstoryboard.org: Featuring @susanorlean.bsky.social & @manjula.bsky.social, Kate Sosin of @19thnews.org, @bittersouth.bsky.social, @aaroncalafato.bsky.social ...
niemanstoryboard.org/2025/10/17/s...
#journalism #longreads #booksky #podcasts
Spolia, by Jen May & Jesse Crispin
Wooden table on which is a small vase of flowers - red anemones, pink jasmine and ranunculus, a deep purple “Vincent Van Gogh” tulip- and a tarot card: the Five of Cups
Wooden table in front of maroon couch with a small jar of pink magnolia blossoms, a lidded cup of tea, and a tarot card: the Page of Cups
A jar of tulips and anemones on a wooden coffee table with a red tea mug and a tarot card: The Empress
If you still have the dragonfly tomorrow (Sunday) lmk and I’ll come get it!
