Two years ago I wrote a post called “Can
You Make a Living from Writing?“ wherein I shared information on where I made
money as a writer in 2012. Since I’ve recently organized my 2014 tax
information, and I’m giving a workshop called “Show Me the Money” at the New
England SCBWI conference, I thought it was a good time to revisit the
subject.
I am a full-time, working writer. I do not have a day job,
and while I do have a spouse with a decent job, we could not survive on his
income alone. I have been making in the range of $25,000 a year in recent
years, creeping up slightly over the last couple of years. (For comparison, the
US national median wage is about $27,000 for an individual. Hey, I’m average!)
My “writing” income includes writing-related activities such
as teaching writing workshops and critiquing manuscripts
A couple of observations before we get into the dollar signs:
In some ways, it would be nice to “just write” whatever I
wanted without worrying about money. However, when I was at a point in my life
where I had to fully support myself through my writing, my career took off. I
not only increased my income from about $5000 per year to over $20,000 per
year, but I also got many more books published. Needing to make decisions based
on what the market wants, and not just what I wanted to do, made that
difference.
It’s been 20 years since I got my Masters degree in
Professional Writing and Publishing. In the last year or two, I’ve finally
reached a point where the business is getting easier. If I send out resumes for
work for hire jobs, my response rate is probably around 25%. In the beginning,
it was no more than 5%.
On the other hand, selling
original fiction or nonfiction has not gotten any easier.
Magazine Articles:
2012 – 22%. This included about 20 articles, paying from $100-$600. Many were
for Children’s Writer or Writers Guide to 2013. I also did several
for a New Mexico publication, one for a science magazine, and a few online
articles.
2014 – 12%, and this is likely to go down even more, now
that Children’s Writer is no longer
publishing.
Critiques: 2012 –
21%. I did about 25 individual critiques, material ranging from synopses to
300+ page novels, plus a set of critiques for a contest. (Learn more about my critique business.)
2014 – 25%. I only count 16 individual critiques last year,
but some of those were for long novels that paid well. I also got paid well to
be a mentor by one of the SCBWI regions. That involved working with two
writers, critiquing each of their novels twice.
2014 – 33%. This income really went up last year. Most of my
work was with one book packager. I did three short books and three longer
titles.
Teaching: 2012 – 11%.
I taught two in-person classes through a writing organization and also taught
students one-on-one through a correspondence school. In 2011, I did a lot of
workshops at SCBWI conferences around the country, but not in 2012.
2014 – 10%. I did several SCBWI workshops. Income from the correspondence
school dropped to ~$200 as I lowered my student load, but I did several online
workshops/webinars. The webinar business has failed to take off, however, and I
don’t have plans to pursue that further.
Royalties: 2012 –
9%, all from The Well of Sacrifice, the first
novel I ever sold. It came out in 1999, but it’s still in print and used in
many schools as supplemental fiction when they teach about the Maya. None of my
other royalty-paying work had earned out yet.
2014 – 14%. A nice increase, because the two books I did for
Simon & Schuster’s Childhood of Famous Americans series, Jesse
Owens: Young Record Breaker
and Milton
Hershey: Young Chocolatier, started paying royalties. They came
out in 2008. With three books now earning royalties, hopefully that will be
several thousand dollars a year in passive income.
Self-Publishing: 2012
– 13%. By the end of
2014 – 6%. This one is disappointing, because I have more
books available (both as Chris Eboch
children’s book writer and as Kris Bock
writing romantic adventures for adults), but I’m making less money. The market
is flooded. I had hoped this would turn into a passive income stream as well,
but so far it hasn’t been a good investment.
Educational Test
Passages/School Visits: In 2012 I had a
little income from each. No school visits in 2014. I did a few test passages. Some
authors make many thousands of dollars per year doing test assessment work.
Novel Advances: No
income in either year.
For both 2012 and 2014, I drew in my income from many
different sources. The main difference is that by 2014, work for hire books
became more important, while income from magazine articles decreased. Both
those trends show the rewards – and risks – of developing good relationships
with a company.
Once you get in the door, if you turn in excellent work on
time, you’ll likely get more work. This is obviously a benefit, but it also
means you could lose a big chunk of your income if that company change its
policies or goes out of business. While I’ve enjoyed working with the one book
packager, I have also sent out resumes to other publishers, trying to build
additional relationships. Having several options also means that you can afford
to turn down the lowest paying or least interesting projects.
Other authors make money from different sources, or in
different proportions. Literary agent Jennifer Laughran wrote a blog post
called REAL
TALK: $ix Figure Book Deal$ on “normal” advances, and on how the big
numbers break down. If someone got the upper end $30,000 advance on a young
adult novel from a midsized traditional publisher, that one sale would equal
most of my writing income. (Except that it would likely pay out over the course
of two or more years.)
However, for most of us, big-money novel sales are few and
far between. Most of the writers I know making an annual “living wage,” or
anything close to it, focus more on nonfiction, work for hire, and teaching.
School visit used to be a major income source for a lot of children’s book
writers. I suspect that has declined in recent years, but I don’t know for
sure.
There is no single path or right path. Many writers don’t
even care about making money from their writing– if you can survive without
writing income, more power to you! But perhaps this post has given you some
ideas for your own career or insight into what it means to be a writer.
Chris Eboch writes fiction and nonfiction for all ages, with
several novels for ages nine and up. In
Bandits
Peak, a teenage boy meets strangers hiding on the mountains and gets
drawn into their crimes, until he risks his life to expose them. The Eyes of Pharaoh is an
action-packed mystery set in ancient Egypt. The Genie’s Gift is an Arabian
Nights-inspired fantasy adventure. In The Well of Sacrifice, a Mayan girl
in ninth-century Guatemala rebels against the High Priest who sacrifices anyone
challenging his power.
Her book Advanced Plotting helps writers
fine-tune their plots. Learn more at www.chriseboch.com
or her Amazon page,
or check out her writing tips at her Write
Like a Pro! blog.
As Kris Bock, Chris writes novels of suspense
and romance involving outdoor adventures and Southwestern landscapes. Read
excerpts at www.krisbock.com or visit her
Amazon page
