Jack Monroe #263 Pest-on, Pest-off

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ChickenPorridge said:
She loves testing the water for this every so often just to remind herself that she COULD if it wasn't for all those mean dissenters. She knows people will suggest it, especially now. Sickening
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What she's angling for is someone else to take the initiative and get the ball rolling. So she can't stand back and say "nothing to do with me" and come up with some bollocks like using the extra space to take in a homeless family, which of course will never happen.
 
Talking about Jack's finances, let's go back to this briefly:

Screenshot_20220228-180444_Chrome.jpg


She quit a steady job in September 2013 to go freelance. First of all, given her total lack of qualifications and loose relationship with the English language, she was incredibly lucky to be offered a position as a journalist! And she threw in the towel after a couple of months.

At this point, she was working on her book, to be published in February 2014. So in quitting her job, she had to trust that it would sell enough to cover her advance, then start turning a profit - and fast, because IIRC authors usually get royalty payments twice a year. Very few people can make a living as an author, and expecting that you will be one of them before your first book has even been published is mad.

The contracts she refers to here? Her weekly recipe column for the Guardian and her Sainsbury's ad campaign. Both decent earners, no doubt, but the Sainsbury's ad would have been one-off days of filming, and as for the Guardian...how much work does it take to throw together a bowl of slop a week?

These are commitments that she could easily have fit around a day job, just as so many people do. There was no need to leave a steady, if unglamorous, position that offered regular pay.

But you see it there, don't you? She wanted to be free for TV and radio. That's clearly what she was expecting: to become famous. Actually, I suspect that she was being told by people around her that she was a star in the making - look at the marketing of her first cookbook. The title and cover image don't have anything to do with food, budgeting etc. Nobody would buy that book unless they were already familiar with Jack Monroe, because A Girl Called Jack sounds like a memoir, not a recipe book. There's a reason why cookbooks tend to have titles with words like Food or Cooking or Meals in them...

Anyway, I just wanted to highlight this, as an example of how truly abysmal she is with finances. She really thought she was about to hit the big time, didn't she?
 
colouredlines said:
Talking about Jack's finances, let's go back to this briefly:

View attachment 1095876 q

She quit a steady job in September 2013 to go freelance. First of all, given her total lack of qualifications and loose relationship with the English language, she was incredibly lucky to be offered a position as a journalist! And she threw in the towel after a couple of months.

At this point, she was working on her book, to be published in February 2014. So in quitting her job, she had to trust that it would sell enough to cover her advance, then start turning a profit - and fast, because IIRC authors usually get royalty payments twice a year. Very few people can make a living as an author, and expecting that you will be one of them before your first book has even been published is mad.

The contracts she refers to here? Her weekly recipe column for the Guardian and her Sainsbury's ad campaign. Both decent earners, no doubt, but the Sainsbury's ad would have been one-off days of filming, and as for the Guardian...how much work does it take to throw together a bowl of slop a week?

These are commitments that she could easily have fit around a day job, just as so many people do. There was no need to leave a steady, if unglamorous, position that offered regular pay.

But you see it there, don't you? She wanted to be free for TV and radio. That's clearly what she was expecting: to become famous. Actually, I suspect that she was being told by people around her that she was a star in the making - look at the marketing of her first cookbook. The title and cover image don't have anything to do with food, budgeting etc. Nobody would buy that book unless they were already familiar with Jack Monroe, because A Girl Called Jack sounds like a memoir, not a recipe book. There's a reason why cookbooks tend to have titles with words like Food or Cooking or Meals in them...

Anyway, I just wanted to highlight this, as an example of how truly abysmal she is with finances. She really thought she was about to hit the big time, didn't she?
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Yes, I think she thought it would be like a movie you have one hit book and then it's first class and an entourage all the way. If she'd lived up to her gifted diagnosis she'd have kept on the job at the Echo (maybe gone part time), and bought a small affordable property. Even if it was too small for her and SB she couldn't have rented it out for a few years until the equity was enough for a deposit. She's done all this to herself by expecting her first bleeping home to cost £800,000. Even very well off people don't get a house that price just drop into their lap.
 
jenny2603 said:
Yes, I think she thought it would be like a movie you have one hit book and then it's first class and an entourage all the way. If she'd lived up to her gifted diagnosis she'd have kept on the job at the Echo (maybe gone part time), and bought a small affordable property. Even if it was too small for her and SB she couldn't have rented it out for a few years until the equity was enough for a deposit. She's done all this to herself by expecting her first bleeping home to cost £800,000. Even very well off people don't get a house that price just drop into their lap.
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She said the Echo only paid ten or £20 per column though.
But yes she thought that greatness was finally hers, without even having to do the x-factor audition
 
HotesTilaire said:
She said the Echo only paid ten or £20 per column though.
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I think that must have been before she got the junior reporter job, which will have been salaried. It still won't have paid much but those positions are highly sought after for young journos, it's a good learning opportunity and a way to work your way up. Of course Jack wouldn't have anything to learn because she knows it all anyway and thought she could shortcut it to a career in journalism, but she's no journalist.
 
colouredlines said:
Talking about Jack's finances, let's go back to this briefly:

View attachment 1095876 q

She quit a steady job in September 2013 to go freelance. First of all, given her total lack of qualifications and loose relationship with the English language, she was incredibly lucky to be offered a position as a journalist! And she threw in the towel after a couple of months.

At this point, she was working on her book, to be published in February 2014. So in quitting her job, she had to trust that it would sell enough to cover her advance, then start turning a profit - and fast, because IIRC authors usually get royalty payments twice a year. Very few people can make a living as an author, and expecting that you will be one of them before your first book has even been published is mad.

The contracts she refers to here? Her weekly recipe column for the Guardian and her Sainsbury's ad campaign. Both decent earners, no doubt, but the Sainsbury's ad would have been one-off days of filming, and as for the Guardian...how much work does it take to throw together a bowl of slop a week?

These are commitments that she could easily have fit around a day job, just as so many people do. There was no need to leave a steady, if unglamorous, position that offered regular pay.

But you see it there, don't you? She wanted to be free for TV and radio. That's clearly what she was expecting: to become famous. Actually, I suspect that she was being told by people around her that she was a star in the making - look at the marketing of her first cookbook. The title and cover image don't have anything to do with food, budgeting etc. Nobody would buy that book unless they were already familiar with Jack Monroe, because A Girl Called Jack sounds like a memoir, not a recipe book. There's a reason why cookbooks tend to have titles with words like Food or Cooking or Meals in them...

Anyway, I just wanted to highlight this, as an example of how truly abysmal she is with finances. She really thought she was about to hit the big time, didn't she?
Click to expand...

Can confirm that authors earn fack all unless they’re lucky and publishers think their concept is going to be an easy sell (then you don’t even have to write a good book!!) Not that I’m bitter or anything with my teeny weeny royalties & invisible advance. Would love to know what her first one was!
 
jenny2603 said:
What she's angling for is someone else to take the initiative and get the ball rolling. So she can't stand back and say "nothing to do with me" and come up with some bollocks like using the extra space to take in a homeless family, which of course will never happen.
Click to expand...
I wonder if Jack thought she'd get away with it pre-Tattle? One of us would definitely give back our Tattle badge and go rogue if she had the audacity to be part of such huge scam.
 
Django said:
I wonder if Jack thought she'd get away with it pre-Tattle? One of us would definitely give back our Tattle badge and go rogue if she had the audacity to be part of such huge scam.
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I reckon the tip jar gets a nice little boost every time she does her “oh shucks, you guys can’t crowdfund a house for little old me! I have a plan, it will take work but I can do it....”
 
HotesTilaire said:
I reckon the tip jar gets a nice little boost every time she does her “oh shucks, you guys can’t crowdfund a house for little old me! I have a plan, it will take work but I can do it....”
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Jack doesn't know the meaning of the word 'work'. Until she learns this and people stop enabling her and paying her way in life, she'll forever be a grifting mare, bemoaning the cruelty of a world handed to her on a silver platter.
 
HotesTilaire said:
I reckon the tip jar gets a nice little boost every time she does her “oh shucks, you guys can’t crowdfund a house for little old me! I have a plan, it will take work but I can do it....”
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She sort of gets away with it just now because she's still quite young and fresh faced (certainly once she's face tuned). Let's see how that tip jar looks at 45.

Django said:
I wonder if Jack thought she'd get away with it pre-Tattle? One of us would definitely give back our Tattle badge and go rogue if she had the audacity to be part of such huge scam.
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Can you imagine the number of new furious Twitter accounts that'd spring up? This place would be empty in about 30 minutes flat.
 
colouredlines said:
Talking about Jack's finances, let's go back to this briefly:

View attachment 1095876 q

She quit a steady job in September 2013 to go freelance. First of all, given her total lack of qualifications and loose relationship with the English language, she was incredibly lucky to be offered a position as a journalist! And she threw in the towel after a couple of months.

At this point, she was working on her book, to be published in February 2014. So in quitting her job, she had to trust that it would sell enough to cover her advance, then start turning a profit - and fast, because IIRC authors usually get royalty payments twice a year. Very few people can make a living as an author, and expecting that you will be one of them before your first book has even been published is mad.

The contracts she refers to here? Her weekly recipe column for the Guardian and her Sainsbury's ad campaign. Both decent earners, no doubt, but the Sainsbury's ad would have been one-off days of filming, and as for the Guardian...how much work does it take to throw together a bowl of slop a week?

These are commitments that she could easily have fit around a day job, just as so many people do. There was no need to leave a steady, if unglamorous, position that offered regular pay.

But you see it there, don't you? She wanted to be free for TV and radio. That's clearly what she was expecting: to become famous. Actually, I suspect that she was being told by people around her that she was a star in the making - look at the marketing of her first cookbook. The title and cover image don't have anything to do with food, budgeting etc. Nobody would buy that book unless they were already familiar with Jack Monroe, because A Girl Called Jack sounds like a memoir, not a recipe book. There's a reason why cookbooks tend to have titles with words like Food or Cooking or Meals in them...

Anyway, I just wanted to highlight this, as an example of how truly abysmal she is with finances. She really thought she was about to hit the big time, didn't she?
Click to expand...

And considering the time she was in - very early Twitter & Instagram - she could have easily gotten a creative/media agency job doing something like content strategy or branding just off the back of her initial viral success. A few years in she’d actually have a skill set in it & portfolio of gr8 work and be able to make the next step up? She could have easily became a senior exec at any one of those sorts of companies *plus* all this other money coming in and actually be wanted at CSR talks. She fumbled so many bags 😭
 
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