Hello, dreamers. The hour approaches. At long last, I’ve heard that agents are going to be reopening to queries in the coming week. My second-round querying journey is about to begin.

As of today, I’ve finished my final run-through of my manuscript. I’ve updated my synopsis to reflect the new material I added. Even now, I could easily put together a list of agents to query from the open ones on my QueryTracker. However, I’d really like to see if any of my prime targets open back up before I fire off the next round. In the meantime, I’ll be spending the next few days sprucing up my query letter. It can always be better.

It’s been a wild week for me. I signed my second short fiction contract ever, and also got paid for an appearance for the first time. That certainly felt good, but it got me thinking about a question many casual readers may have but are uncomfortable asking, since it involves an uncomfortable subject:

Just how, exactly, do authors make money?

Writing for a Living

Obviously, all authors write first and foremost because they love writing. But if you’re serious enough to be sending out submissions or queries, obviously the goal is to make money. In today’s literary world, most authors do not claim writing as their primary career. It is certainly possible to make a living as a writer, but it takes a lot of hard work and dedication. Typically, a modern writer who actually makes a living through their work must be three things: hard-working, successful, and most of all prolific (think Stephen King).

As for how, exactly, writers make their money, as with most things involving the literary industry it depends on your format.

Short Fiction

Though these posts largely deal with querying novels, we’ll start here because it’s the most straightforward process.

Authors of short fiction make money by having stories accepted for publication in either literary magazines or anthologies. Many smaller magazines (and most anthologies) pay by the piece, typically $20-50 per story. Larger markets, particularly well-established literary mags, pay by the word.

In the modern sci-fi literary magazine space, the current industry standard pay rate (mandated by the Science Fiction Writers of America) is eight cents per word. Ten cents per word is considered competitive, while anywhere north of that is considered above market. Many markets have different pay rates at different word counts (typically paying less beyond a certain threshold), while some simply cap off payment at a certain point.

Now, eight cents per word may sound pitiful. I know that years ago when I first looked up the pay rate for short fiction, I was shocked. But bear in mind the number of words in a typical story. The story I recently sold to Analog Science Fiction & Fact clocked in north of 14,000 words. If they paid just one dollar a word, I could buy a car with the proceeds. Not a nice one, but still.

Once a short story is accepted by a market, the author signs a contract. Payment is typically made electronically (usually through PayPal). Smaller markets may pay upon publication, while most larger markets pay upon acceptance (meaning the moment the author’s signed contract is countersigned by the purchasing editor, and becomes binding). Once the author has been paid and their story has been published, the contract expires, and the two sides go their separate ways.

Novels

For authors of novels, pay is a little more complex. As with music and film, the key point in payment for novels is royalties. When a novel is published, an author will receive a percentage of each sale of their book.

For self-pub authors, the royalties tend to come at a higher percentage. Authors can choose either 35% or 70% royalties. It may seem like a no-brainer to take the higher percentage, but Amazon requires a higher minimum price for those royalties. If authors would prefer to sell their book for, say, a dollar per copy, they must choose the smaller percentage.

In traditional publishing, the royalty rates are typically much lower. A debut author can usually expect to make 10% off every book sold. Agents will often build escalators into the contract, allowing the author to make a higher percentage based on the number of books sold. But this still typically tops out around 15%.

The reason royalties are so much lower for trad pub authors is the publisher themselves. The fact is, it’s not cheap to publish a book. The printing and binding itself is expensive, but remember a publisher does more than just churn out copies. A publishing house will also handle editing, formatting, distribution, and marketing. Self pub authors get a higher share of the profits because they must do all of those things themselves.

Even still, publishers understand that few authors would want to traditionally publish a book if all they had to look forward to was around two bucks off each $20 copy. So they sweeten the deal by providing an advance.

An advance is a large sum paid to the author upon signing of a book deal. In today’s publishing world advances are large; typically five or six figures even for debut authors. The practice dates back to the days when most writers did, in fact, write for a living. Their work was their only source of revenue, and thus it was in a publisher’s best interest to keep them writing. And, you know, not starving. Even today, while it’s not mandated, it’s understood that an author should invest at least part of their advance in their craft, whether by buying new computers or word processing software or attending seminars and conferences on writing. Bear in mind, though, no publisher is going to ask you where the money is going. Once you’re paid, it’s yours.

Now, it can be easy to liken an advance to a signing bonus for a professional athlete, but it’s important to remember the term: advance. The publisher paying the advance doesn’t consider it a gift; rather, it’s a statement of confidence. As the term suggests, it’s understood to be a payment on the eventual number of copies the publisher expects to sell.

If the author’s book doesn’t sell enough copies to make back the advance, the publisher isn’t going to demand to be repaid the difference or anything. Once again, the money is yours. But they will measure the total sales against the amount of the advance to determine how marketable the author (and their work) is. If an author’s book sells enough copies to cover the full amount of the advance, they’re said to have earned out. And that’s the goal, especially for a debut author: to show the publisher they can make money off of you.

So yes, an author can make a significant sum of money by publishing a novel. But that’s still only one novel. As I said earlier, making a living as an author requires prolific writing. But for some that isn’t really possible. Thus, many modern authors make writing a career by marketing the one thing they have besides their writing: themselves.

Marketing Yourself

Or more specifically, your success. In case I haven’t made it clear enough through all these posts, it’s not easy to traditionally publish a novel. And while it’s easier to self-publish a novel, it isn’t any easier to be successful. So if you’re a writer who’s made it, a lot of other writers will want to know how you did it. And there’s money to be made there.

Traditionally, many writers have supplemented their publishing incomes by teaching courses on English or creative writing. My friend Craig Terlson, the successful indie author of the Luke Fisher series, has proven that’s still a viable option. However, our modern electronic world offers a wide range of new possibilities.

Many writers today end up offering online courses or webinars. Author Jane Freidman runs one of the foremost blogs about writing and the publishing industry. Bestselling author Bianca Marais offers a wide range of resources for aspiring writers, including the industry podcast The Shit No One Tells You About Writing. Many writers offer paid subscriptions on Substack, while yet others have become social media influencers on YouTube or TikTok.

And, of course, there are always opportunities within the publishing industry itself. I know many wonderful authors, including K.T. Carlisle and Jenee Dutary, who work as literary editors in addition to writing. And many authors ultimately become literary agents.

The sum of all this is that really, it is possible for a writer to make a living through their writing. But it takes a lot of hard work and shrewd business sense. I often say that writing isn’t a “Get rich quick” scheme; it’s a “Live comfortably after years of hard work” scheme. An author must write constantly and keep churning out marketable work. And more than likely, at least for a while, they’ll need to find other ways to capitalize on their success.

But if you’re a writer hoping to make your craft into a career, it’s important to remember that you’ll have help. As I’ve said before, everyone involved in the publishing industry has a vested interest making you a full-time writer. The more you write, the more money they make. And if there’s a way to make sure you can live comfortably while writing for a living, they’ll find it. – MK