Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
There are around 250,000 books published by publishers in the US every year. The best number I could find on the internet suggested that there were 50,000 novels published every year. If 5% of these authors made a living, that would be 2500 self-supporting fiction writers.
However, other sources suggest that 70% of authors don't earn back their advance. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/bo...w/Meyer-t.html This would mean that 30% of authors *would* earn back their advance. Average advances tend to be in the $30-40,000 range (with some obviously being much greater). This would mean that 15,000 authors would make at least that much money. (And the remainder would still get their advance).
So on this scale, 5% looks too low. However, it's not enough to get a, say, $50,000 advance; to make a living, you need to get a $50,000 advance *every year.* Or a much larger advance less frequently. So 5% may be an accurate percentage of those authors who can make enough from their writing to live off of it for a, say, 10 year period. |
I've seen several articles/posts/surveys that show the average advance for a debut novel is between 5k and 10k (with a major house. Smaller publishers often by 500 to zero advance and only pay for copies sold.) 10k is not enough to live on for even a single year. And in fact, since most publishers only make room on the roster for one book per year per author (exceptions are made for authors like JD Robb or Stephen King) an author has to write for several years and hope that each book earns out and that each advance is larger.
It's a difficult business, which is why so many authors have day jobs.
It isn't just the actual income--it's the things like retirement, healthcare and the higher out of pocket expenses (things like websites, higher social security taxes, agents and any marketing the author decides to do.)