CCBC-Net Archives
Re: an energized community and an informed community
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Charles Bayless <charles.bayless_at_gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 09:12:13 -0500
Following-up on Marc's financial reality check.
I have never been able to get a good handle on the answer to a reasonably simple question. How many people earn the bulk of their income from literary writing (fiction and non-fiction, as opposed to technical writing)? Last time I looked at this was a few years ago and the information then just wasn't available. My impression is that it is in the low hundreds, possibly in the very low thousands, and mostly concentrated in particular genres such as mystery and romance, and among authors with already well established writing careers. The overwhelming majority of authors, it appears, have a full-time job or a part-time job, or are in a household where there is another full-time income, etc. IIRC the New Yorker had an article on this sometime in the past five years about the travails of an author trying to break into the big time. Making a decent living just from writing literary books is a relatively rare achievement. It can be done but isn't done all that often, as far as I can tell. That isn't to deny that once established, authors can't make good money. Only that the lag time between conceptualizing the ambition to be a writer and achievement of financial success/ financial independence can be very long, and for the great majority, never happens.
The only reason this is important is setting expectations. The high school varsity kid considering whether to pursue a career in baseball or go to college ought to at least know that only one in a thousand make it to the major leagues and less than half of those who do make it have a chance of having a career longer than five years. He knows he is really good compared to his local competition but his decision might be different if he knows that he only has a one in a thousand chance of hitting it big. Likewise with the kid who wants to be a writer. Except that in sports, you know in just a few years what your odds are. In writing it can be decades. There are many other reasons to pursue writing, but it is important to know the facts as far as they can be known.
Charles
==== CCBC-Net Use ==== You are currently subscribed to ccbc-net as: ccbc-archive_at_post.education.wisc.edu.
To post to the list, send message to...
ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu
To receive messages in digest format, send a blank message to...
digest-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu
To unsubscribe, send a blank message to...
leave-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu
==== CCBC-Net Archives ==== The CCBC-Net archives are available to all CCBC-Net listserv members. The archives are organized by month and year. A list of discussion topics (including month/year) is available at...
http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ccbcnet/archives.asp
To access the archives, go to...
http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/ccbc-net
...and enter the following when prompted...
username: ccbc-net
password: Look4Posts
Received on Tue 04 Mar 2014 08:13:54 AM CST
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 09:12:13 -0500
Following-up on Marc's financial reality check.
I have never been able to get a good handle on the answer to a reasonably simple question. How many people earn the bulk of their income from literary writing (fiction and non-fiction, as opposed to technical writing)? Last time I looked at this was a few years ago and the information then just wasn't available. My impression is that it is in the low hundreds, possibly in the very low thousands, and mostly concentrated in particular genres such as mystery and romance, and among authors with already well established writing careers. The overwhelming majority of authors, it appears, have a full-time job or a part-time job, or are in a household where there is another full-time income, etc. IIRC the New Yorker had an article on this sometime in the past five years about the travails of an author trying to break into the big time. Making a decent living just from writing literary books is a relatively rare achievement. It can be done but isn't done all that often, as far as I can tell. That isn't to deny that once established, authors can't make good money. Only that the lag time between conceptualizing the ambition to be a writer and achievement of financial success/ financial independence can be very long, and for the great majority, never happens.
The only reason this is important is setting expectations. The high school varsity kid considering whether to pursue a career in baseball or go to college ought to at least know that only one in a thousand make it to the major leagues and less than half of those who do make it have a chance of having a career longer than five years. He knows he is really good compared to his local competition but his decision might be different if he knows that he only has a one in a thousand chance of hitting it big. Likewise with the kid who wants to be a writer. Except that in sports, you know in just a few years what your odds are. In writing it can be decades. There are many other reasons to pursue writing, but it is important to know the facts as far as they can be known.
Charles
==== CCBC-Net Use ==== You are currently subscribed to ccbc-net as: ccbc-archive_at_post.education.wisc.edu.
To post to the list, send message to...
ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu
To receive messages in digest format, send a blank message to...
digest-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu
To unsubscribe, send a blank message to...
leave-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu
==== CCBC-Net Archives ==== The CCBC-Net archives are available to all CCBC-Net listserv members. The archives are organized by month and year. A list of discussion topics (including month/year) is available at...
http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ccbcnet/archives.asp
To access the archives, go to...
http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/ccbc-net
...and enter the following when prompted...
username: ccbc-net
password: Look4Posts
Received on Tue 04 Mar 2014 08:13:54 AM CST
