IT’S A SHAME ABOUT RAY
STATUS: Singing the Lemonheads. Obv.
FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: This interactive quiz that tests your geography know-how. So far I’m doing okay, though I think I put the Pyramids of Gaza in, like, Chad or something.
So, this month has been a wee bit tight financially because we owed some taxes and some other stuff came up like it always does, and that got me thinking about how hard it can be (potentially) to make ends meet when your only income is from writing. Not that it can’t be done — many writers do it and do it well — but I’m just saying it can be challenging. Here’s why.
Let’s start with the obvious which is that if you’re writing YA like me or, say, sci fi or romance, the advances on these books aren’t huge. Four figures isn’t uncommon; five figures is really good. Then, if your agent takes 15% and taxes take, like, 30 percent, that doesn’t leave much for living expenses, health care, and retirement (assuming you aren’t employed elsewhere).
Even if you hit the gold mine and you did get a six-figure advance, you shouldn’t quit your day job. That’s because you gotta sell, like, a bazillion books to earn back that big, fat check. And if you don’t sell that many books, your publisher will probably hesitate to give you a six-figure advance again (unless of course your ab fab agent negotiated a two-book deal, each at six figures). The bottom line is that you might hit pay-dirt with a book but then, a couple years later, if sales are slow and you haven’t been able to produce another hit, things could get tight.
Of course I say all this knowing a.) there are lots of writers out there who write full time and make it work; and b.) I totally want to write full time myself, someday. Perhaps the lesson here is to give it time and build up a fan base and residual sales, and then keep producing new stuff.
For now, I guess I’m glad I love my job, as it looks like I’ll be here a while.
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