My writing income surpassed my day job about a year ago and I went full time. I'm far from the most successful self-publisher out there, but I enjoy working for myself full time and I've been able to have a level of productivity I'd never dreamed of before. 5000 word days were few and far between before I went full time, now I have 50,000 word weeks regularly.

There's just one problem...

Everybody thinks I'm unemployed!

Maybe it was all the people who lost their jobs because of Covid setting it off, but now every family and family acquaintance I know is calling me up and saying, "you should check out Local Restaurant. I heard they're looking for waitresses." or less a less friendly, "It's time to get back on the job market. You're going to have a gaping hole in your resume if you keep laying about being lazy."

All my books are published through pen names, and even if they weren't given the content they're probably not things I'd want my religious relatives reading. On top of that, they know I write stuff online, but they're convinced no writer could possibly make a living off their work and I'm not about to sit down giving them a six hour overview of my sales records and marketing strategies to prove it.

It's gotten to the point that I'm probably not going to show up for family Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations because I know it's going to be lecture after lecture saying, "it's past time you get a job."

Maybe I should just ignore them completely, but there are some good family members I like among my extended family and I don't want to cut ties with them completely. My brother recommended I save up and buy some sort of simple adsense website off EmpireFlippers and claim that's my business. It would certainly help with questions from strangers and first dates, but it seems like a waste of $30k which could be invested elsewhere.