A Guest Post By Holly Chism
Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be…
…writers.
Seriously. Don’t. The hours suck, the boss usually sucks, and the pay is risible. And that’s when the contracts aren’t abusive.
I’ve been a (self-published, independent) writer (through Amazon) for thirteen years, now. I started out doing two books per year around the demands of my adjunct English instructor job I used to have, then picked up the pace when my day job let me go because of financial shortfalls and shifts in management making the place incompatible with actual learning. The pay there was terrible, but I wasn’t primary income earner.
Then I had kids. And the place changed policies on how online classes were taught. Guess what the pay didn’t cover? Yup! Daycare! But…it did cover preschool/kindergarten tuition at a local private school, and my hours were flexible enough that…yeah.
My first book, a collection of short stories (that I will need to bash up a new cover for at some point) still hasn’t made $60. My second did better, and my third.
Fast forward thirteen years. With an average of two books a year, you’d expect twenty-six books, right?
You’d be wrong. I’ve got thirty one…but there were a few years where I didn’t publish anything. Because I got sick, and it went autoimmune, and I didn’t have any energy for doing more than the bare minimum at my teaching job.
For a couple of years, I did four or six books a year. Yeah. That’s…really a punishing pace. Worse when you think about the fact that I can’t write during weekends, long breaks, or summer because kids. (They’re teens, and you’d think it’d be better, but it’s actually worse.) During the school year, my butt’s in the chair, keyboard’s in the lap, and I’m doing my best to either get words on paper, or the finished piece edited into something coherent, grammatically correct, and…dammit, I forgot I changed that character’s name three chapters ago. And the cat puked. Again. Which…
Did you know that any interruption in writing flow takes an hour or so to recover from? Yeah. Just in time to go get the kids from school.
My boss (me) pushes me really hard, and dumps things on me that a writer of fiction shouldn’t have to deal with—like structural editing, worrying about marketing (I’m still failing, there, and have not one clue how to do better), covers (I suck, but I have magnificent friends)—all because my boss (me) is a cheapskate that won’t (can’t) pay for any services. And publishing through Amazon is (mostly) free.
And the pay…well. Last year was my best so far, royalties-wise. I actually made half what I made my first year teaching for the local university, pre-tax. So far, this year looks a little better. But that’s still half of the pay that had a Russian PhD at a seminar class tell me that my pay was worse than hers was under Communist government.
Wait, what? But writers get paid a lot, right? I mean, JK Rowling? Larry Correia? Stephen King?
Yeah, no. Most writers don’t make those bucks. See, most fall solidly in mid-list or below. Partially because almost nobody knows how to market books. No, not even marketing inside of publishing knows how to market anything. And it just keeps getting worse, because the things that work? Eventually stop working. I’ve heard that a lot of writers, especially in traditional publishing contracts, make somewhere in the realm of $5-10K. Most don’t make that much. And don’t write more than one book, because…
Look. There are dozens upon dozens of horror stories out there. A quick Google search won’t find much because they get kind of buried. When there’s not a gag order involved in the contract signed. And Google isn’t a terribly good search engine, anymore, just the best known.
Writers sign contracts that are more abusive, in some cases, than the fabled casting couches in Hollywood. But instead of offering up their bodies to get this one role, this one job, that might launch their career, they offer up their soul to be raped, and lose any rights to their (brain) child. Ever. And most traditional publishers don’t advertise any but who they think might be a best seller. Because they have no idea how to. And then, when that book doesn’t sell, the publisher (and their agent) drops them like a hot rock, and they vanish (more or less) silently beneath the waves.
So, no. Writing isn’t a good career to go into. Don’t do it for a job. Just…don’t. Do. Not.
Wait, what? Why am I still writing?
Oh. Well. I have a few reasons. First of all, I’m not able to do much of anything else productive. Remember that autoimmune disorder? It strikes at random. Some days I’m nearly okay, and some I have trouble getting out of bed to the living room, and can’t sit at a desk at all. Some really bad days, I just have to go back to bed. And since I’m not doing anything else, and it doesn’t cost money to publish, I do that.
Second? I can’t shut the stories off. Characters walk into my head, sit down, and start bothering me. I have to write what they tell me to get them to shut up and let me do everything else I have to do (teenagers, remember? Two of them. Gotta keep ‘em fed, and teach them what they need to know to move to adulthood).
Third. Well. Remember I said I went a few years without writing? I was barely keeping my head above water, mental health wise, and the only reason I was doing as well as I was? I loved teaching. Still love it, can’t do it. Writing does more for my mental health than teaching ever did. I can’t not write. And I’m fine not teaching.
Writing isn’t an option for me. It’s my only choice, if I want to keep my sanity.
(I’d like to point out it’s the exact same thing for me! – SAH.)
Mad Genius Club 
29 responses to “A Guest Post By Holly Chism”
I wonder how many new writers die of old age shortly after finishing their first book? Or while trying to get it published?
There’s many a trunked novel discovered by heirs.
There have been several one-off books by authors that had that published and then nothing. And I’m not talking about someone who just takes 3-5 years between publications. Unless someone posts something on-line nowadays, you never know whether they passed, life happened, or that was all they had. I’ve only seen one author like that come back from oblivion, and I’m glad she was able to do so.
And no, I don’t think an author owes anyone anything beyond what they are willing to write. But then I worry about people who pop up and then disappear.
Book didn’t sell is probably common. The same author may appear under different bylines.
My entire “class” people who came in at the same time I did, got fired in 2003, because of the really bad effects of being published for the first time around 9/11.
I’m one of the few who survived and went on, through sheer bloodyminded persistence.
I still want to know what Thorarinn Gunnarsson is writing as now.
Getting copies of The Dragonlord Chronicles was worth it, but a pain.
Now you need to read The Still Small Voice of Trumpets by Lloyd Biggle Jr.
And contemplate the plight of the one armed harpists.
I feel seen. 😛
And yes, if I don’t write, things leak in less-than-ideal ways, and my mind gets odder. I have to get the stories out. Or else.
And I hear you on the covers. I’m in the process of finding a new source for cover art. If you do mil-sci-fi, your choices are very good. If you do romance, ditto. Urban fantasy that’s not shirtless dude or shape shifters? Ummm. Among other things.
We’re bards and half mad, I swear.
For cover art, I can recommend a friend of mine: Denis Loubet (denisloubet.com). He started in game design, doing box covers for several video games, but has branched out into other genres. He has a contract right now to do covers for an urban fantasy/paranormal romance series, and I know he’s willing to entertain offers to do other covers.
The gallery on his website shows his range; one should be able to get a good idea of whether he’d be suitable from perusing that.
Thank you! I’ll give him a look.
I have been writing books since 2001. Since then I have had over sixty published. My writing income this year is one-quarter of what I make at the day job as an engineer at JSC. (So it is well above minimum wage, but well below professional wages.)
I plan on writing full-time this year because I have secondary sources of income (pension, investments, maxxed-out Social Security), combined with much lower expenses (house paid off, kids through college and on their own, and old enough to be on Medicare).
That means I can afford to go the full-time writer route. I might be able to bring up my writing income to 1/3 to 1/2 my engineer’s salary. Might. But I can live comfortably even without the writing.
My only excuse is that I enjoy writing more than anything else, it brought in as much money as a serious golf habit would cost me, and it beats hanging out in bars. My wife always knew where I was.
I went through a period, 20+ where I wrote practically nothing, and that nothing was short form fanfic, of which the longest was a multi chapter “epic” that ran maybe 17K words. I was an extremely weird and annoying person in those days. I wouldn’t say that i magically became normal the moment i got into NaNoWriMo and learned to eke out 50K+ words per year on stuff that might have fannish roots, but at least had the serial numbers filed off. But over time, it did seem to help. Self-publishing was something I had delusions of success about, once upon a time, but anymore it’s just a milestone to hit, like the daily km on the rowing machine. I apparently can’t write to any market but me, and I am an audience of one, so can’t quit the dayjob.
Can’t stop writing, brain goes crazy(er). Yep, know that one.
Must write faster….
Same, same.
52K on current WIP….
Not yet. Mom’s death threw a wrench on everything. Clawing back. Slowly.
It takes time. Take a breath.
Same here, first book took 20 years from conception to publishing on Amazon. Second book, maybe 8? Third, maybe 4?
I have more than ten written, I just don’t like publishing them. Because then they’re finished, or something?
Money? No. Ridiculous and pointless exercise if money is the goal, I’d literally make more collecting pop cans for scrap.
I write them so I have the story I wanted. They’re a little weird, maybe, they don’t go the way most SF adventures do, but that’s what I wanted. Plus, I like the people in them. That makes it worth my time to continue.
And really, there’s pride too. Look at that, a real actual book, and I wrote it. Hell yeah.
Amen. It’s almost worth the hassle of putting together a print edition just to hold a properly bound copy of one’s writing in one’s own hands, IMHO.
If Trad Pub knew how to market books, they wouldn’t have their product stacked high on remainder tables across the land. Or being pulped.
We keep writing (34 books and counting!) because we love it. When we speak with baby authors (something we routinely do), we always say:
“Don’t expect money.”
“Passion projects don’t make money.”
“Don’t expect lightning to strike.”
“If you earn coffee money, you’re normal.”
“Don’t expect anyone to care but you.”
It this discourages you, you’re not meant to be a writer.
To me that sounds like exactly what they need to hear.
Yep!
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be writers!
My Dad actually tried to talk me out of it when I was 16 and announced I wanted to be a writer. He came back the next day and said, “Do you know that only 150 people in America make their living solely by freelance writing?”
My 16 year old brain thought, “Cool, I’ll be part of a real elite!”
Yes to all of the above.
And at my age, with kids grown, house paid for, social security,and medicare, I could squeak by with my writing income. Fortunately I have a husband also with SS, medicare, plus pensions, IRAs and so forth, so we actually *feel* beyond secure and close to rich.
Now if we were just healthy . . .
Eh, no regrets. I’m happy when I’m writing.
Rich is having enough money or non-working income that you can live the lifestyle you wish to enjoy without having to work. If you have to work to achieve that lifestyle you are still among the working poor even if your job pays you $1million a year. Especially if you are earning $1million a year if you would be out on the street in six months if you lost that job.
One positive thing to say about freelance writing is while it is a lousy career it is a great side gig. It is dead easy to make $5K-10K annually writing weekends and evenings.
It just doesn’t scale. Getting to $5000/year was really easy. Working up to $10 was not difficult. After that the difficulty in making money seems to increase exponentially. Even regularly bringing in $80,000/year puts you at least three-sigma high on the writer’s income curve. (I’ve never gotten within smelling distance of that and don’t expect to.
Yet that $5000/year extra income really helps when things are tight. Like I said, a great side gig.
most of the time when the kids were growing up, I consistently made 20 to 30k, but only because I wrote for 2 to 3 houses.
OTOH even though I was working a ton, it was indoor work and sitting, and I was home for the kids when they came home or had to stay at home…
Any job I could have got from secretarial to teaching would pay the same or less, and make me unable to raise my own sons. (And cost for daycare.)
So…. You CAN make a living from this. The last two three years have been tough, but then I’ve been sick a lot.
All it takes is working insane amounts. And now I’m not being dictated to as to what I can write (No shade on trad it’s the way it works) it’s FUN.
I write to avoid going into written-word withdrawal.