The financial situation of writers always seems a bit mystical and magical to me.
How can they spend so much time writing?
Are they independently wealthy? Do they have a job we just don’t hear about, and they write in their own time? Do they not have families depending on them?
I’d love to have a life of leisure pursuing the highest quality of a thing I can build over a decade. But my family also needs to eat.
You sacrifice things - video games, TV, doomscrolling. There just isn't enough time to do all that and write. That's what most would-be writers are unwilling to give up.
If they're famous writers, they spend the money they made from their book rights, advances, and the luckier financially, movie and tv deals. I mean, Stephen King had enough money to spend 10 lifetimes to leisurly write a single word a day by 1990 already.
If they're not so famous, the have regular day jobs, or usually writing related side gigs, like writing articles for magazines (at least back when this made you a livable wage), teaching literature, and so on.
Others are independently wealthy, or have spouses who support them.
And some still live in poverty and make it day to day, with random gigs and the kindness of strangers.
For the vast majority of writers, writing is not their main household source of income. The average book is not profitable if you account for even minimum wage.
In the UK, the average full time writer earns less than they would at McDonalds, but their average household income is well above average. In other words: Most rely on a reasonably well earning partner.
And full time writers are rare even among fairly successful writers published by big publishers.
I have a few friends who have written NYTs best sellers. They made no money from them. One friend of mine is quite famous, writes regularly for the NYTs magazines… and again.. no money (not $0 but not enough to buy a new laptop). They give a lot of lectures and public speaking, most of which pay $0.
It’s hard to write for more than a few hours a day, when you do it every day. You spend the rest of your time researching, organizing, day job, raising children, divorcing, etc.
That's why some of us (probably most) go to work every day...some in desk jobs (like me, still working on a novel I started almost two decades ago), some who are housewives with husbands who work (and vice versa), some teachers, some bus drivers. What you do to put food on the table often has nothing to do with your writing, which can be fit into your life on the weekends, in the evenings, on lunchbreaks, on the bus...
you can sign a book deal to write a book and get paid an advance against your royalties. for a major publisher and a "normal" author this would typically be five figures.
those are hard to get, especially your first one, and also it's not quite enough money, but it's not completely ridiculous that it could fund some full-time writing.
After almost a dozen years spent writing almost as many technical books (some second editions), I wouldn't recommend taking forever with a technical book. It will be out of date by the time it comes out.
Every author has to figure out why they write. For me it was a business decision, and finally this year I'm making more from books than I was doing software.
Your publisher will likely send out an email when the book comes out. Don't expect much more from them. My advice, promote the book and use it to build up a mailing list. (I should have been building my list much earlier.)
I'm not sure about the intersection between technical books and traditional novelists. The only person I've known who tried it ended up going the self published route for the novel.
I am curious myself about writing a book for the general business audience through a traditional publisher.
Happy to answer more questions, I have details in my bio for contacting me.
I'm still waiting for Rohinton Mistry's next book. He published three amazing novels (notably A Fine Balance, which is a masterpiece) between 1991 and 2002. Then nothing except a short story in 2006. It's possible he has retired from writing, but there's been no news at all from him or his publisher.
This is a strange article. There are slow writers, there are fast writers. It seems that each writer is in a way different like… like any person! So..?
But are they prolific due to speed or consistency? I think consistency plays the bigger role.
Stephen King writes about 1,000 words per day, consistently. Some other writers may do much more in a single day, but are more sporadic, “when inspiration strikes.”
Eminem has been prolific and is well known for his writing. I read an account from Akon working with Eminem in the stupid where he said Eminem treats music like a job. He shows up in the morning, works, takes his lunch break, works, and is done at 5pm. He’s showing up consistently, and he’s writing constantly, most of which will never been seen.
Jerry Seinfeld also famously wrote a joke every single day, not breaking the streak.
With this much practice, it would make sense that they’d get faster of time, but someone who is slow and consist will be much more prolific throughout the course of a lifetime, than someone who is fast, but inconsistent.
I think the value in this case is for the slow writer (or slow creator of anything) who perceives it to be a race (gotta go work for Big Corp and crank out PRs faster than the next guy).
When a person is stuck in that belief, which they often don’t explicitly realize, to have the realization that slow-but-high-quality is a viable path is a big unlock, and potentially a huge weight off their shoulders.
A great boon for people who enjoy a writing voice trained by Quora answers, corporate press releases and bone-dry academic journal articles. The bookshelves at Kindle Self Publish have never been fuller.
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How can they spend so much time writing?
Are they independently wealthy? Do they have a job we just don’t hear about, and they write in their own time? Do they not have families depending on them?
I’d love to have a life of leisure pursuing the highest quality of a thing I can build over a decade. But my family also needs to eat.
If they're not so famous, the have regular day jobs, or usually writing related side gigs, like writing articles for magazines (at least back when this made you a livable wage), teaching literature, and so on.
Others are independently wealthy, or have spouses who support them.
And some still live in poverty and make it day to day, with random gigs and the kindness of strangers.
In the UK, the average full time writer earns less than they would at McDonalds, but their average household income is well above average. In other words: Most rely on a reasonably well earning partner.
And full time writers are rare even among fairly successful writers published by big publishers.
I have a few friends who have written NYTs best sellers. They made no money from them. One friend of mine is quite famous, writes regularly for the NYTs magazines… and again.. no money (not $0 but not enough to buy a new laptop). They give a lot of lectures and public speaking, most of which pay $0.
It’s hard to write for more than a few hours a day, when you do it every day. You spend the rest of your time researching, organizing, day job, raising children, divorcing, etc.
those are hard to get, especially your first one, and also it's not quite enough money, but it's not completely ridiculous that it could fund some full-time writing.
Every author has to figure out why they write. For me it was a business decision, and finally this year I'm making more from books than I was doing software.
I'd like my technical non-fiction to lead to a novel deal later. What do you think?
I'm not sure about the intersection between technical books and traditional novelists. The only person I've known who tried it ended up going the self published route for the novel.
I am curious myself about writing a book for the general business audience through a traditional publisher.
Happy to answer more questions, I have details in my bio for contacting me.
but those books are fuckign huge though. it does not surprise me it took so long
Prolific artists get more practice; they get more feedback; they get more opportunities.
Stephen King writes about 1,000 words per day, consistently. Some other writers may do much more in a single day, but are more sporadic, “when inspiration strikes.”
Eminem has been prolific and is well known for his writing. I read an account from Akon working with Eminem in the stupid where he said Eminem treats music like a job. He shows up in the morning, works, takes his lunch break, works, and is done at 5pm. He’s showing up consistently, and he’s writing constantly, most of which will never been seen.
Jerry Seinfeld also famously wrote a joke every single day, not breaking the streak.
With this much practice, it would make sense that they’d get faster of time, but someone who is slow and consist will be much more prolific throughout the course of a lifetime, than someone who is fast, but inconsistent.
When a person is stuck in that belief, which they often don’t explicitly realize, to have the realization that slow-but-high-quality is a viable path is a big unlock, and potentially a huge weight off their shoulders.