How much do you think a writer typically makes each year?
£400,000, £40,000? In fact, it’s closer to £4000…
But will this nugget of information stop you writing? Now you know that the chances are that you will make just a small amount of cash from all of that hard work, will you stop?
I am betting the answer is no.
So, why do writers, myself included, continue to tap away. I suspect if we can get away from the romantic images of legacy and artistic expression, the answer has something to do with R.K. Rowling.
You see all us writers know the J.K Rowling story. She gets an idea for a story whilst on a train journey, spends five years writing the first book, gets an agent, then a book deal and then…well…fame and fortune.
Yet, the J.K. Rowling story is not all book deals and big houses. Her success took hard work and a whole lot of luck. She struggled for five years to write the first book, her mental health suffering in the process. When her agent did finally place the book she received an advance of just £1500, which was not enough to live off and she had to rely on the Scottish Art’s Council for a grant to continue writing. Yet, in the end Rowling was staggeringly lucky, far more than any typical writer can expect. Rowling is well aware of her good fortune and describes herself as ‘extraordinary lucky.’
But it’s not just J.K. Rowling who is lucky, take any major bestseller and delve deeply into their story. You will find the luck, it might be hidden and polished for public consumption but it’s there – Stephenie Meyer, Stephen King, Dan Brown they all have it
So if this is true, if the vast majority of published writers make very little money. Why do publishers not offer a more realistic insight into the publishing world? Why do you they insist on moulding and promoting the image of the best selling author? The answer is that publishers need best sellers.
You see most books make a small amount of profit, or even a loss, perhaps as many as 70%. However, the remaining 30% make so much profit that they cover the losses of the other books. These are the best sellers.
The problem publishers face is that bestsellers are impossible to predict, as well as being rare. So in order to ensure they publish at least a couple of bestsellers each year they release lots of books, clearly aware that 70% will fail, but the remaining 30% will sell far beyond expectations.
So publishers need new books, they need new writing, they need writers to be blindly pass their work to agents in the hope that (fingers crossed) they will be a bestseller. Yet, the reality is that most writers will make just £4000 per year.
Are you still writing?
