Well, that’s the
idea, isn’t it? We write these tomes, and we would like to be paid a working
wage. In fact, many of us don’t consider ourselves “professional writers” until
we’ve pulled down some royalties.
But the odds of making
a living from writing are slim. And there is no one to petition to raise our
minimum wage. Marketplace purchases decide your royalties.
Here are some
facts I gathered from online research of surveys and polls about writers’ incomes.
One in ten authors
can make a living from their writing without a supporting, secondary job.
The typical writer
earns less than minimum wage.
17% of authors earn
$0 a year despite 98% of them having something recently published.
5% of authors earn
42.3% of all writing income. That’s 95% of us sharing the remainder. Talk about
the haves and the have nots.
Women writers earn
80% of what male writers earn.
77% of indie authors
made $1000 a year.
1.3% of
traditionally published authors earned $100,000 a year. But only 0.07% of indie
published authors earned that amount.
Oh, there are more
of these discouraging stats, but why go on. Your writing is almost certainly
not going to support you. If it does, well, bully for you. For the rest of us,
we’d better have a back-up plan.
These stats are
the reason that fewer presses give advances to new authors. Most new authors
don’t earn out the advance in future royalties. The publishers gave more
generously in the past because the expectation of future books was that over
time the money for the advance on the first book would be recovered by the
publisher.
So what do writers
turn to for earning a living wage while waiting to get into the 1.3% who do
succeed financially?
The majority of
writers I know have a job unrelated to writing. But the mortgage gets paid and
the kids have milk to drink. In their “spare time” they crank out their books
and indie or traditionally publish them. The dribbling royalties justify their
identity as professional writer. I tell folks rude enough to ask what I earn
that my royalties are in the hundreds not the tens of thousands.
A very large
number of my professional writing friends supplement royalties by providing
editing services for other writers. These are professionals who are using their
talents with others’ words. That service is almost certainly going to return
more than royalties. So some authors are able to quit their day jobs and focus
on their own writing and ancillary writing, keeping, thus, to the same field.
A smaller number
of professional writers I know of supplement royalties by offering other
services and/or teaching on-line and in-person classes. I’m hoping to be in the
latter category.
I was an educator
for thirty-nine years. Even as an administrator, I taught whenever I had the
opportunity. It’s in my blood. Therefore, teaching writing classes, for me, is
not just about being a professional writer who is paid for her expertise (if
not her writing), but it gives me pleasure to be part of another’s
understanding of complex materials.
I have approached
Writer University with a couple of ideas. Writer University is not just any
on-line writing classes group. It began in 2005 when Mary Buckham and Laurie Schnebley
Campbell connected over their desire to create quality, affordable on-line
classes for writers. They have expanded course offerings and instructors over
the years, but the quality remains at the same high level they always
envisioned.
The classes are in the categories of business/craft
classes, basics, master classes, super classes, and private classes. The topics
range from plotting to writing synopses to working on the first draft to so
much more. The classes are two- or four-week experiences. And the price is
right! Most classes are as low as $35 for four weeks of instruction and
targeted homework. These are some of the best classes I have ever taken for any
price.
I would love to
teach classes for this group. So, wish me luck as I plan and try out a course
or two. I’ll be looking for a few hardy folks who want to take the class to
help me refine it before making it a general offering. Are you one of them?
Please spread the
word about this post. Thanks so much!
Facebook: Can you earn a living from royalties as an author? Well, maybe, but it’s
not likely. So how do writers make money? http://bit.ly/2EKYWZI
Twitter: #Writers, tired of trying to live off paltry royalties? There are
other ways to use your writing expertise and get paid for it. http://bit.ly/2EKYWZI
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