Professional Writing - Ya Just Gotta Love Doing It

I was getting ready to meet with my financial planner a couple of days ago and started thinking about money and publishing. Ok, maybe it was just thinking about the cruise I wanted to take and the lack of funds due to my daughter heading off to college next year that was on my mind, but it did pop into my brain for a second. I thought back to an author who I mentioned recently here on the blog who expected nothing less than a mid 6-figure deal for his debut novel. I have heard other authors tell me that their goal is to quit their day job with their first book and write full time next to their pool like they see authors doing all of the time on TV.

Ummm, not gonna happen. 

Ok, let me just say, before some of you will start listing off names of authors who did make that kind of jump so why can't it happen to them? Yes, there are some who do it. But then we have to talk about that chapter in your statistics class on "Probability vs. Possibility."

The reality is that writing as a profession is not going to be as lucrative for the general public as they would like it to me. This is ever more of a reality for newer authors who have just signed that first contract. If you are taking the self-published approach, this money making venture just got even harder.

Your income for your books is based on a lot of variables that are way out of your control. Sure, you might negotiate a great advance. You might get some great royalty percentages, but in the end, it is all based on whether or not people out there read your book. Consider this at a very basic level.

• Book sells for $15.00 (I am keeping things VERY basic). 
• That is retail
• Your publisher is going to take a cut of that
• Remember they have to make money too
• Remember they have to pay the art department for that snazzy cover
• Remember they have to pay for shipping your book to the book seller
• Remember they have to pay the editors
• You get the idea
• Let's assume you had an agent who negotiated that deal for you (This is 15% of the advance and/or royalties)
• And edited the book for free until it sold
• And listened to you cry over chapter 6
• And... you get the idea
• Remember also your royalties are ONLY after you have "sold through" on your advance. 
• Once that happens you are talking about a percentage of the sales.

I think you see where this is going. And that is just one book. You are also competing against all of those other authors out there fighting for the same readers. 

This is a tough job.

As I said, if you are self-publishing, all of those costs that come out of selling that $15.00 book are coming out of your profits directly. Note: This is why I always warn people to take with a grain of salt the dollar figures self-published authors are proclaiming. In many cases, they are quoting GROSS sales and not NET sales. 

So, why do I bring up the money here? Writing is one of those few professions where you can take a hobby and turn it into a career. You got into writing because you loved doing it. You spent countless sleepless nights worrying over a story that was simply being written for fun. You didn't do this for money. I always equate writing with teaching. Those of us who teach did not enter this job for the "big bucks"! We did it because we loved the area we teach and we love teaching. 

The same thing goes for writing. You have to do this because you love it. Once you start looking at just the money and not the story, you have lost your edge. Your stories will not be as strong as you wanted them to be. Why? Because you weren't putting your passion into the story, you put your passion into reading (and often complaining to your friends on social media) of how your book was totally getting screwed over. 

Write because you love it!