fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #4018 ]

[ SECRET POST #4018 ]

⌈ Secret Post #4018 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Is that bad? I mean, that's like a month's pay for me, I'd take $3000...

DA.

As someone who is finishing edits on a book and planning an agent, I agree. $3,000 might not be a ton, but to me it is totally worth it. If you're good, and lucky, and people like your work after that you'll get more. That's just the first step. Hardly anyone gets paid a ton for their first steps into publishing.

That's what I thought, I mean, I've only sold one novella so it was only available in ebook and I got royalties and I'm pretty sure I've made maaaybe $50 bucks off it?

I feel like everything thinks writing a book with a 'big' publisher means huge money, but unless you're in the right place at the right time with something hugely marketable (ie JK Rowling), it's not true.

Especially not when you're a new author with no/a very small fanbase.

AYRT

Exactly. I'm not sure why people are so hung up on a living wage. Almost no one gets paid a living wage for a first-time book. I went to school and have a full time day job to pay the bills because it's a known fact that you don't quit your day job to write until you're making more writing than you are at your day job.

And that can take years! It's not a job where you can right out of the gate live off of. Just like how being an artist isn't. Or being a jewelry maker. Or a knitter. Or anything like that.

I honestly don't get why people think it would be a job where one book sold = living wage.

Well, yes. Because for most people, a novel represents a lot more than a month's work.

Agreed, but someone just getting their foot in the door is not going to have someone hand them a million dollar advance. It's not realistic.

Where did I say anything about a million dollar advance? Nobody in this thread has suggested that an unknown author is entitled to a million dollar advance. You do know there's a pretty wide range between $3000 and $1,000,000, right?

REALLY? There's a difference?!

All I'm saying is people are acting like $3000 isn't a lot of money. As an author and someone who works full time, to me $3000 is still a lot of money for an advance for someone just getting their foot in the door. $3000 is three months rent for me, that helps a LOT.

For the labor put into the work and the need to make a living wage off that labor? It's not a lot of money. (Unless you're cranking them out quicker than Chuck Tingle.)

No you're right, it's definitely not a living wage if you compare money to labour, but to be honest that's why I went to college and got a 'day job' too.

I love writing, I won't ever give it up, but it's not something I personally can expect to make a living wage off of (personally, because I write MM fiction and that's still not a huge market/isn't something that the big publishers are looking for).

Maybe because to some people, it isn't a lot of money. It depends on where they live and what the cost of living is there, what their economic situation is, their health, whether or not they have a day job, etc. If you have a decent day job, then 3k is a nice bonus. If you're trying to scrounge a living off just writing, then don't forget that the 3k doesn't just go toward rent, it might also have to cover rent, food, clothes, transportation, health insurance, any emergencies, etc. for the writer and any dependents they might have.

Keep in mind that authors who publish a novel per year are considered prolific. I mean real novel-length books, not 10K of crappy erotica. So imagine for a year's work, you get $3,000. Even if you tripled that amount, that's barely enough for one person to live on in most of the U.S.

But you don't get $3000 for a year's work. You get $3000 as an advance on the product of a year's work, with more to come if it actually sells. It's the money the publisher's giving you before they know how marketable your work actually is, or if anyone other than your ten best friends are actually going to buy it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #4018 ]

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