50% of Authors Say They Can’t Support Themselves By Writing Alone

I think a lot of times we forget that like with any profession, authors are sometimes paid very well and other times not as much as we think. I remember reading an article (somewhere online) last year about Nora Roberts. She was listed in Forbes as making $60 million a year. I don’t doubt that’s probably true (for a gross figure), but I think it’s important to remember NR has a long and established career, with more than 294 million books in print. That is, as I’m sure you can imagine, not the norm.

With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that 50% of multi-published authors polled by Novelists, Inc. (NINC) said they couldn’t support themselves by writing alone.

From Tess Gerritsen’s blog:

An organization called Novelists, Inc. (NINC) conducted a survey of its membership last year. NINC is a terrific group, by the way, to which I belong. Its membership is restricted to multi-published authors. NINC queried a random sample of 100 of their members. All 100 members responded, so this is a good sampling, with no self-selection involved. These 100 authors had published a median number of sixteen (sixteen!) novels apiece. Their genres were all over the board, with most of them published in mystery/thriller or women’s fiction/romance. Nine percent of them have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. Nineteen percent of them had appeared on the USA Today bestseler list. Clearly these are accomplished professionals.

So they must be raking in the bucks, right?

These writers were asked: “Do you (or could you) support yourself on your current writing income?” The results:

Yes — 22%

Probably Yes — 9%

Probably No — 17%

No — 52%

These are depressing figures. Only 31% of multi-published novelists are able to support themselves on their writing.

So if you’re looking to get rich quick by writing that bestselling novel, you might want to think again.

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