Writing as a Business
I am one of the lucky ones. One of the extremely lucky ones: I make my living as a writer.
It's not the way I dreamed of making a living as a writer*, but the fact of the matter is I get to write geeky stuff (superheroes! Star Trek!) on a daily basis, and take home a paycheck that allows me to pay a modest rent, service my debt (from school and teaching), eat, and occasionally buy books. I also get health insurance.
Now, it was a combination of luck and obsessive compulsive persistence that I found this job. Plus having a somewhat quirky publishing history that appealed to the folks doing the hiring. Gigs like this are not thick upon the ground.
I understand how lucky I am. My writer friends understand how lucky I am. Even some of my non-writer friends understand how lucky I am. However... I think the vast majority of people (not specifically my friends, but people in general) have no sense of what trying to make money (never mind an actual living wage) from writing is actually like. And why should they? Unless you're in the business in some capacity, want to be in the business in some capacity, or are closely involved with someone who is in the business, you have no need to know. Other than curiosity.
For novelists (and really, I think most people default to thinking of novelists when they're thinking of writers) it's not easy at all to make a living. Leaving aside the writing itself, the finding of an agent, the finding of a publisher, the revising and the marketing, there simply isn't very much money in it. Sharon Lee has a great post about this today: Rich Authors. Here's a brief excerpt, but if you're curious I highly recommend clicking over and reading the whole thing:
When an author goes to contract for a book, they receive what is known as an advance against royalties. The shorthand for this is "advance," and some people therefore forget that it's a loan against future earnings. Authors by contract receive a certain percentage of cover price on each sale as a "royalty." Before any royalties are paid to the author, the book must first pay back the money given in advance of its publication (aka "earn out").
So, using Carousel Tides -- because that novel is mine, all mine, and I didn't tell Steve I was going to do this, much less get his agreement -- as an example, this is what the math looks like:
Advance against royalties: $12,000
Pretty good, huh? Actually, it is. Most new writers can expect a much lower advance -- around $7500 for a first fantasy. Expect, wait! You don't think you're going to get that whole big lump of cash all at once, do you? No, no. We're going to break it into pieces. Happily, Baen only breaks their advance payments in half (I've heard of advances being broken down into as many as four pieces. Take into account that publishers as a race pay late, and this becomes...challenging... to any writer trying to live within budget).
Back to particulars: Sometime relatively soon after signing the contract, a check arrives:
on-signing: $6,000
less agent commission 15%: ($ 900)
less taxes 33%: ($1,683)
grocery, rent, and cat food: $3,417
Click here for more...
It's not a lot of money, is it? And this is for an established writer with a track record and loyal following.
(Disclaimer: The numbers below are not from my own personal experience. I'm working with what I can recall hearing from friends and mentors. Any errors are mine alone. Clarifications from those who know more are, of course, welcome.)
Worth noting as well is that the percentage each author gets as a royalty (which, remember, must earn out the advance before going to the author) is pretty small. Let's use the same size advance she's using. Beyond that, let's assume this is a hardcover, so we'll price the book at $24 (which, incidentally, is the cover price for the Sharon Lee & Steve Miller book I got for Christmas - thanks Mom!) Then, let's say we have a royalty of 12% of the cover price for every book sold. Here's how that works out:
Cover price: $24
Your 12% royalty per book: $2.88
Sales required to earn out: 4167
Now, I don't know what the size of an average hardback print run is (and please feel free to chime in if you do), but let's say for a solid midlist SF author we're getting a print run of 15,000 books. If you sell out that entire print run, you won't have trouble earning out your advance. But there's no guarantee, unless you're a best selling author, that you'll sell out a print run. Still, best case scenario leaves you earning $43200 total. (This includes that advance you already received, so $12000 plus $31200 ). It isn't precisely nothing, but it isn't precisely going to leave you rolling in money. And this is all before taxes. And it can take a long time to sell out that print run, so you're not going to get that amount of money all at once. It may take several years before you see the entire amount.
Note, I've only dealt with hardbacks thus far. I haven't even touched on paperbacks, which are also covered by that initial advance. A paperback run will be larger than a hardback run (30k to that 15k) but the cover price will also be significantly lower (around $7.99). Your royalties on a mass market paperback will also be lower. Say, 8%. Some math:
Cover price: $7.99
Your 8% royalty per book: $0.64
Sales required to earn out: 18750
(this last number assumes paperbacks alone, not counting in hardback sales)
In reality, the number of books you'd need to earn out the advance in this scenario is going to be some combination of hardbacks and paperbacks.So, total, somehwere in between 4167 and 18750. And that's just to earn out. The majority of books never earn out, much less make a profit.
Now, if you are one of the lucky ones and manage to sell out both hardback and paperback print runs, you'd end up with $19200 from the paperback run. Total (again, including your initial advance) would be $62400. Before taxes and the cut that goes to your agent (which they deserve, after all, because they sold the damn book and negotiated the contract).
And this amount of money will be paid to you over a long period of time. Sure, it's enough to live off for a year, but you won't get it all in one year. It will take several years before that money gets to you. And then think of the time you spent writing the book in the first place (which could be anywhere from a few months to a few years). Then the time it took to finally see print (which can be years and years and years, if ever). Not every book you write will necessarilly get published, either. This isn't a lot of money. And this is only if you do really well.
You could easily earn more working full time at a Starbucks. Plus, you'd have benefits.
* I started out as a playwright.
It's not the way I dreamed of making a living as a writer*, but the fact of the matter is I get to write geeky stuff (superheroes! Star Trek!) on a daily basis, and take home a paycheck that allows me to pay a modest rent, service my debt (from school and teaching), eat, and occasionally buy books. I also get health insurance.
Now, it was a combination of luck and obsessive compulsive persistence that I found this job. Plus having a somewhat quirky publishing history that appealed to the folks doing the hiring. Gigs like this are not thick upon the ground.
I understand how lucky I am. My writer friends understand how lucky I am. Even some of my non-writer friends understand how lucky I am. However... I think the vast majority of people (not specifically my friends, but people in general) have no sense of what trying to make money (never mind an actual living wage) from writing is actually like. And why should they? Unless you're in the business in some capacity, want to be in the business in some capacity, or are closely involved with someone who is in the business, you have no need to know. Other than curiosity.
For novelists (and really, I think most people default to thinking of novelists when they're thinking of writers) it's not easy at all to make a living. Leaving aside the writing itself, the finding of an agent, the finding of a publisher, the revising and the marketing, there simply isn't very much money in it. Sharon Lee has a great post about this today: Rich Authors. Here's a brief excerpt, but if you're curious I highly recommend clicking over and reading the whole thing:
When an author goes to contract for a book, they receive what is known as an advance against royalties. The shorthand for this is "advance," and some people therefore forget that it's a loan against future earnings. Authors by contract receive a certain percentage of cover price on each sale as a "royalty." Before any royalties are paid to the author, the book must first pay back the money given in advance of its publication (aka "earn out").
So, using Carousel Tides -- because that novel is mine, all mine, and I didn't tell Steve I was going to do this, much less get his agreement -- as an example, this is what the math looks like:
Advance against royalties: $12,000
Pretty good, huh? Actually, it is. Most new writers can expect a much lower advance -- around $7500 for a first fantasy. Expect, wait! You don't think you're going to get that whole big lump of cash all at once, do you? No, no. We're going to break it into pieces. Happily, Baen only breaks their advance payments in half (I've heard of advances being broken down into as many as four pieces. Take into account that publishers as a race pay late, and this becomes...challenging... to any writer trying to live within budget).
Back to particulars: Sometime relatively soon after signing the contract, a check arrives:
on-signing: $6,000
less agent commission 15%: ($ 900)
less taxes 33%: ($1,683)
grocery, rent, and cat food: $3,417
Click here for more...
It's not a lot of money, is it? And this is for an established writer with a track record and loyal following.
(Disclaimer: The numbers below are not from my own personal experience. I'm working with what I can recall hearing from friends and mentors. Any errors are mine alone. Clarifications from those who know more are, of course, welcome.)
Worth noting as well is that the percentage each author gets as a royalty (which, remember, must earn out the advance before going to the author) is pretty small. Let's use the same size advance she's using. Beyond that, let's assume this is a hardcover, so we'll price the book at $24 (which, incidentally, is the cover price for the Sharon Lee & Steve Miller book I got for Christmas - thanks Mom!) Then, let's say we have a royalty of 12% of the cover price for every book sold. Here's how that works out:
Cover price: $24
Your 12% royalty per book: $2.88
Sales required to earn out: 4167
Now, I don't know what the size of an average hardback print run is (and please feel free to chime in if you do), but let's say for a solid midlist SF author we're getting a print run of 15,000 books. If you sell out that entire print run, you won't have trouble earning out your advance. But there's no guarantee, unless you're a best selling author, that you'll sell out a print run. Still, best case scenario leaves you earning $43200 total. (This includes that advance you already received, so $12000 plus $31200 ). It isn't precisely nothing, but it isn't precisely going to leave you rolling in money. And this is all before taxes. And it can take a long time to sell out that print run, so you're not going to get that amount of money all at once. It may take several years before you see the entire amount.
Note, I've only dealt with hardbacks thus far. I haven't even touched on paperbacks, which are also covered by that initial advance. A paperback run will be larger than a hardback run (30k to that 15k) but the cover price will also be significantly lower (around $7.99). Your royalties on a mass market paperback will also be lower. Say, 8%. Some math:
Cover price: $7.99
Your 8% royalty per book: $0.64
Sales required to earn out: 18750
(this last number assumes paperbacks alone, not counting in hardback sales)
In reality, the number of books you'd need to earn out the advance in this scenario is going to be some combination of hardbacks and paperbacks.So, total, somehwere in between 4167 and 18750. And that's just to earn out. The majority of books never earn out, much less make a profit.
Now, if you are one of the lucky ones and manage to sell out both hardback and paperback print runs, you'd end up with $19200 from the paperback run. Total (again, including your initial advance) would be $62400. Before taxes and the cut that goes to your agent (which they deserve, after all, because they sold the damn book and negotiated the contract).
And this amount of money will be paid to you over a long period of time. Sure, it's enough to live off for a year, but you won't get it all in one year. It will take several years before that money gets to you. And then think of the time you spent writing the book in the first place (which could be anywhere from a few months to a few years). Then the time it took to finally see print (which can be years and years and years, if ever). Not every book you write will necessarilly get published, either. This isn't a lot of money. And this is only if you do really well.
You could easily earn more working full time at a Starbucks. Plus, you'd have benefits.
* I started out as a playwright.