Making a living off of writing

[J.D.Rajotte]

Ok, I know that the statistics aren't the greatest in terms of "becoming a huge success" or striking gold and becoming rich, but I'm just curious if anyone here can and does actually make a living off of their writing? I'm perfectly confident in having a bread winner on the side, but "overwhelming wealth" talk aside, how realistic is it to believe you can at the very least "live off of" this?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Ok, I know that the statistics aren't the greatest in terms of "becoming a huge success" or striking gold and becoming rich, but I'm just curious if anyone here can and does actually make a living off of their writing? I'm perfectly confident in having a bread winner on the side, but "overwhelming wealth" talk aside, how realistic is it to believe you can at the very least "live off of" this?

Some years I do okay some years less so. To make a living I’d have to hustle a lot more, do copy writing and the like and, frankly, my main job is flexible and pays better. But it is possible - I have friends who do - but you need to be open to writing for the market not just what you love

 

[Mon0Zer0]

Some years I do okay some years less so. To make a living I’d have to hustle a lot more, do copy writing and the like and, frankly, my main job is flexible and pays better. But it is possible - I have friends who do - but you need to be open to writing for the market not just what you love

Pretty much as @Jo Zebedee said, I've had years of reasonable income* and terrible income where I've had to turn to office jobs and side gigs to make ends meet. But I don't "write to market" - and I know of people who do that make a comfortable income writing niche erotica and stuff like that.

The median income for authors is £4,000 per year, iirc.

* reasonable meaning, enough to pay the bills and put food on the table. Not enough to do normal things like take a holiday or get a mortgage.

 

[KGeo777]

There was an article by Stephen King (20 years ago) in which he talked about how much the writing market had changed. In the 1950s someone could make a living selling only short stories--enough to buy a house.

I knew some people on Amazon who said they were selling quite a bit--enough to live off-but you know, it's hard to know if they invested a lot of money or maybe some of it is BS.

The thing is, if there are authors making money like that--they won't get publicity easily. You won't know about them anytime soon.
The only ones that seem to get much press are the blockbuster book sellers. That attitude from the movie business transferred over into publishing especially when Harry Potter came in on his broomstick. Less is more.
Fill up the space with one type of book.

And I think King also said the money one gets from a book --novel--was a lot less than it used to be--but he wasn't speaking of himself-he meant publishing in general for first time authors.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I have a lot of author friends who make a living from writing - both trad and self published. Some have very good incomes. It can be done - it just takes a flexible attitude to what work you take on, or a lot of time invested in promo/crowdfunding/various income streams. Only very very few make that income from the writing time alone

 

[KGeo777]

That's the thing--you have to be something other than a writer. A self-promoter--which is not a traditional author trait. There are exceptions but in the old days the professional author only had to write. Others took care of promotion.

 

[J.D.Rajotte]

Thank you guys I appreciate the insight for sure