My last post on leaving my day job behind to become a full-time author with a traditional publishing house garnered a lot of comments to my social media feeds. The question most frequently asked (besides ways in which to kill your agent, editor, reviewers, and not get caught) is - can the average author really make a living writing fiction?
We're talking average author with a traditional house here. Not someone like Linwood Barclay or
Stephen King, or Janet Evanvich (who Library Journal once compare me to. They didn't look at our bank accounts, obviously.) These people make the big advances we all dream of.
I'm still dreaming. By average author, I'm talking about someone like me, with sixteen books published, and ten awards you might recognize. Someone who occasionally hits the Amazon top 100 list of all books with a new release, and then drops out of sight after a couple of weeks. We used to be called 'mid-list' authors. I kind of like that term, so you'll hear it again today.
I'm here to tell you the truth. Some of it hurts, and some of it may be encouraging - you can judge.
Really, I'd be more comfortable giving you my bra size than spilling the financial numbers (38 Long is a hard size to find, by the way) but here goes.
In my last post, I quoted the UK, where recent reports say the average income of a paperback writer (note how I use the Beatles here and in the title) has dropped from 8000 pounds a year (maybe 15000 Canadian dollars) to 4000 pounds a year (more like 7000 Canadian dollars.) Point is, the average fiction novelist is earning way less than 15 years ago.
Our Canadian stats measure pretty closely. I do better than that - or have until now - probably because I have a backlist of fifteen books, several from series. If someone picks up the latest book in The Goddaughter series, they may go back and pick up all five books that came before (bless their little hearts.) That's how I've managed to sort of make a living - on royalties from backlist books.
But back to the stats. Hold on as I try to be honest:
In my best year, I made 33,000 from my books. If you add in teaching writing courses at college, and workshops at libraries and conferences, plus author appearances, I made about 50,000 in total.
But that was my best year. I won The Derringer that year, and the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence. I also won the Hamilton Reads award (the city I border on.) USA Today featured one of my books, and that shot me to the Amazon Top 100 list between Nora Roberts and Tom Clancy for a few weeks.
Thing is, that isn't a typical year.
My advances usually run about 5000 a book. If I'm lucky, I get two contracts a year and write two books a year. That's $10,000.
I have to 'sell through' those advances before I see any royalties. Since my books sell for 10 bucks, and I get a dollar a book, that means I have to sell 5000 books of each before I get any royalties. That's considered a best-seller in Canada.
So advances of 10,000 a year, in a good year. And maybe royalties of a little less than that. In a good year. Add in teaching - another 6000. A few short story sales - (I can hear you laughing from here.)
Last year I made 21,000 from my books. A lot less than my best year.
Covid has definitely played a part. My last book came out the week of first lockdown. Every event and book tour was cancelled. It'll be a while before I earn back that advance! How do you promote a book if you can't get out there? And when every other writer on the planet is anxiously spamming social media?
My point through this exercise today has been to lay bare the financial realities of a mid-list author as I have experienced them. It sobers me sometimes to think that the assistant to the assistant at a publishing house makes more than the writer does.
This month, I signed for a new series with my third publishing house. This one is bigger and more prestigious than the previous two, so I'm on a high. I'm also scared to death. The stakes are higher now, the expectations greater. I'll let you know next fall if the financial rewards match my dreams <wink>
Melodie Campbell is a paperback writer of multiple genres, south of Toronto. You'll find her books at all the usual suspects.
Last Goddaughter book...(crime)
Her last book...(Rom-Com)
