If there remains a deeply cherished fantasy, it is that writing a book will make you rich.
It certainly has for a select few; Forbes reports that, last year, James Patterson made $70 million, Stephenie Meyer $40 million and Stephen King $34 million. They were followed, on the top 10 earners' list, by Danielle Steel ($32 m), Ken Follett ($20m), Janet Evanovich ($16m), John Grisham ($15m) and Nicholas Sparks ($14m.) Tenth, while not even putting out a new book that year, J.K. Rowling at $10 million.
Next one...me!
The truth is much less sexy. Most writers will sell a paltry few hundred, maybe few thousand copies, of their book, whether published by a commercial house, academic press or self-published.
Most professional writers I know -- and I know many, as I sit on the board of the 1,400 member American Society of Journalists and Authors -- certainly hope for terrific commercial success, big sales and maybe ancillary income from television or film rights. One writer I've heard of (oh, the envy) has had her book optioned three times -- for a total of $150,000 -- for a film that has yet to be made.
Yeah, I'll take $150 large for sitting at home in my PJs.
But we know better.
I also sit, for a little taste of reality and another way to help fellow professional writers, on the board of the Writers' Emergency Assistance Fund, which gives away $5,000 grants to those who desperately need it and meet our requirements. (weaf.org)
After you read some of those applications, from people whose credentials go on for pages, your fantasies can shrivel somewhat.
I'm finishing up my second book this month, for a large NYC publisher. We're already booking speaking engagements, even as I work on my revisions -- sort of like enrolling the kid in college before you go into labor.
Will this one make me rich? I doubt it. Right now I'm living on my savings, as I knew I would have to from the first book. They all take longer than you think and advances are dribbled out in slow, small instalments that can be 12 months from one to the next.
So, why write a book? I'm already famous enough, having written professionally for 35 years. Maybe not to people on the bus or grocery store, but I'm OK with that. The people I want and need to know my name have heard of me. If I can find a gazillion more readers, terrific, but I just don't write engaging fiction -- the stuff that is realistically likely to sell millions.
And that's OK, too.
The biggest challenge of being a professional author is controlling your fantasies -- about your talent, your marketing skills, your social media presence, your ability to be fab on CNN and NPR (done both), live, your willingness to suck up revisions and get them done when all you really want to do is eat chips and watch Oprah instead.
Few of us authors, whatever our topic or talent, will ever hit it into the stands. Most of us will hit singles or doubles, maybe a triple. I am thrilled knowing my first book is in libraries from Hong Kong to New Zealand to the Ivy law schools; check out worldcat.org, which is how you find out where every copy of a book is in the world's libraries. A friend one snapped a photo of three of my babies sitting on the shelf in the libary in Las Vegas. Hi, guys!
We pro's write books for a whole host of reasons, but we do keep stepping up to that plate.
We just don't expect to get rich doing it.
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Stephanie Phoenix
emma peel 2
greenheron
Leeandra Nolting
Little Forrest in the Big City
MarianneSp
Salon.com
Comments
I never thought I would get rich from writing, but I have. I am rich in readers who write to me and tell me they loved what I wrote...rich for the experience of writing a first book...rich for writing a second...don't need the whole pie...just my little slice...xox
That includes agents and editors; my rejection letters for my many unsold books have been delicious -- like the one from F S & G that derided my proposal as something that read like a Ford Foundation grant proposal. Whateverrrrr! It's hilarious what people will say when they can't think of anything to say beyond "We don't want this." My first and second books were each rejected by 25 major publishers -- before someone said "I'm in." You need a Teflon soul and an agent who utterly believes in the project and in you to weather such challenges.
If you self-publish, you can find your audience -- but unless you are willing or able to work with a tough editor, you may not ever improve your work. That's an individual decision.
LM, it's fun when there are few(er) risks involved -- whether ego, money, potential income, peer reviews, etc. If you put, as I do as a professional writer, all your eggs in that basket, it is very different. For people who find writing "fun", cool. I enjoy it, but I would not describe working within the industries of journalism/publishing as fun.
I think EPL had many charms. The bottom line of memoir is that it's one person's story, told in their voice, through their eyes -- and then edited into what everyone hopes will become a commercially successful product. I'm finishing my retail memoir and acutely aware (hm, terrified) that readers and critics may tear me to pieces over whatever they perceive as my weaknesses -- and being middle-class and Caucasian seem to be a start.
Note to self: More coffee, pause before hitting "Post"!
cartouche, the differences are many. The difference between an athlete and a writer (I have been a nationally ranked athlete in my mid-30s) is that athletes, de facto, have coaches and face tremendous competition which keeps them sharp and/or weeds the weak or ill-prepared out very quickly.
Self-publishing, with all respect to anyone who goes that route, allows anyone to put their material into the marketplace. Some of it is excellent but, like blogging without any editing, some of is is total garbage and people refuse to submit to the larger gatekeeping forces of agents and editors who know what people will actually buy -- not just what everyone is desperate to publish. Big, big difference.
"Do not look toward writing as a profession. Work at something else. Dig ditches if you have to, but keep writing in the status of a hobby that you can work at in your spare time. Writing, to me, is a hobby—by trade I'm a farmer."
Blogging is a nice way to blow off some of that steam. But it further encourages the widespread fantasy that everyone's story is fascinating and everyone else is dying to hear it. Not so. My next post will be about writing a book proposal and the discipline it enforces.
It takes a lot more than "wanting" it for a book to get published by a major commercial publisher. There are other routes. But anyone wants to "pick up" writing insults the skill it takes to do it well.
No one "picks up" civil engineering or hairdressing or neurosurgery.