not a way to make a living

[ljgeoff]

I remember a high-school friend making a joke that Stephen King would go down into his basement with a ream of paper and not come up until it was done.

I don't see how anyone can think, gee, I'll make a living as a writer! At $.02/word (for short pieces) or $5000 (generous for an unknown/ average if you've got one or two under your belt - that sold well) for a 90,000 word novel, a person would have to write five novels or over a million words of shorts to make just $25,000/year. And that's not just words written, but polished and sold.

Of course, if one was writing and selling that much, it'd mean that one was brilliant, and the words would most likely go up in value. I really doubt King gets a measly $5K per opus (not that I'm saying King is brilliant, but there's stuff he's written that I really like, and, man, does he sell.)

I was explaining this to my son Sam last night, when he asked if we'd be rich if I sold my novel. He shook his head, "But ... how could you not be rich? You'll be in libraries!"

And I thought, yes, you're right.

Not the riches he was thinking of, but, still. I remember explaining this same thing to Jake, and he quirked his lips at me, "You are the only person I know who would be crazy enough to work so hard for nothing."

Making a lot of money writing is like making a lot of money as an athlete, or as a performer. Some people do, but it's a very small percentage of the ones who are out there striving. If there's one thing that I've learned from Wiscon, it's that writers are like dust on the street; there as so many, many good writers out there.

I'm writing this as a reminder to myself -- I write for the love of it; because I can't not write; because when I don't write, a part of me goes unfed; because when I call myself 'writer,' my heart sings. And as with any lover, there are disappointments, compromise, and working out the nuts and bolts.

Comments

[firecat]

You're absolutely right that it's very difficult to make a living as a fiction writer, but it's not quite as bad as that. The rights to a story can be sold more than once. Mike Resnick used to write a column about how to maximize income by doing just that. (They are collected in an out of print book here.) I suspect the likes of Stephen King get most of their income from selling movie rights.