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Re: an energized community and an informed community
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From: bookmarch_at_aol.com
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 09:36:19 -0500 (EST)
In the old days, which Norma Jean described, there was a ladder. An illustrator straight out of art school would take his/her portfolio around to the NY houses and get a cover to do, maybe some work-for-hire spot illustrations, then be matched up with a senior/established writer for a picturebook. With talent and good luck, that young artist might attract attention, win some awards, start to build a backlist income, then begin doing solo books at full royalty. Publishers employed a "round robin" where each house shared its published books with other houses, so you could see the interesting new artist on page 45 of a chapter book and suggest to your art director that she might be good for the poetry book you were editing. So by early-mid-career the artist would have backlist, would have several new projects cooking, and a constant flow of small gigs.
With the pressure of frontlist and retail, that slow build is much harder. Publishers need A list illustrators with A list authors -- name recognition from parents buying in stores or online. The modern round robin is the carousel in the App Store. Though from my very description, you could argue that the old system had the hazard of the in-group -- who went to art school? who sought out the art directors? whose works were in the round robin? In that sense, the modern system, while less of a ladder is -- at least potentially -- more open to the outsider -- the Jeff Kinney found on the internet, or, possibly the artist from an under-represented group who makes a splash in digital space or in graphic novels or in some form of media less distant than children's book publishing.
I will say, though, that many people who write and illustrate books for K-12 do so because they love doing it. Yes we all need to make money and want to win prizes and be recognized. But there is a true artisanal pleasure in hand-crafting a book, one that you think is a gift to young readers. So if we have enough of a career to allow us to build these hand-made works of art while also -- for example, teaching -- it is win win. So your question is really two sided: how many can realistically think writing or illustrating will pay every bill? Very few. How many can realistically think that writing or illustrating can be an intensely satisfying part of a many-sided life -- quite a few.
Marc Aronson
-----Original Message----- From: Charles Bayless <charles.bayless_at_gmail.com> To: 'CCBC-Net' <ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu> Cc: bookmarch <bookmarch_at_aol.com> Sent: Tue, Mar 4, 2014 9:13 am Subject: Re:[ccbc-net] an energized community and an informed community
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
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Received on Tue 04 Mar 2014 08:36:58 AM CST
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 09:36:19 -0500 (EST)
In the old days, which Norma Jean described, there was a ladder. An illustrator straight out of art school would take his/her portfolio around to the NY houses and get a cover to do, maybe some work-for-hire spot illustrations, then be matched up with a senior/established writer for a picturebook. With talent and good luck, that young artist might attract attention, win some awards, start to build a backlist income, then begin doing solo books at full royalty. Publishers employed a "round robin" where each house shared its published books with other houses, so you could see the interesting new artist on page 45 of a chapter book and suggest to your art director that she might be good for the poetry book you were editing. So by early-mid-career the artist would have backlist, would have several new projects cooking, and a constant flow of small gigs.
With the pressure of frontlist and retail, that slow build is much harder. Publishers need A list illustrators with A list authors -- name recognition from parents buying in stores or online. The modern round robin is the carousel in the App Store. Though from my very description, you could argue that the old system had the hazard of the in-group -- who went to art school? who sought out the art directors? whose works were in the round robin? In that sense, the modern system, while less of a ladder is -- at least potentially -- more open to the outsider -- the Jeff Kinney found on the internet, or, possibly the artist from an under-represented group who makes a splash in digital space or in graphic novels or in some form of media less distant than children's book publishing.
I will say, though, that many people who write and illustrate books for K-12 do so because they love doing it. Yes we all need to make money and want to win prizes and be recognized. But there is a true artisanal pleasure in hand-crafting a book, one that you think is a gift to young readers. So if we have enough of a career to allow us to build these hand-made works of art while also -- for example, teaching -- it is win win. So your question is really two sided: how many can realistically think writing or illustrating will pay every bill? Very few. How many can realistically think that writing or illustrating can be an intensely satisfying part of a many-sided life -- quite a few.
Marc Aronson
-----Original Message----- From: Charles Bayless <charles.bayless_at_gmail.com> To: 'CCBC-Net' <ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu> Cc: bookmarch <bookmarch_at_aol.com> Sent: Tue, Mar 4, 2014 9:13 am Subject: Re:[ccbc-net] an energized community and an informed community
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
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Received on Tue 04 Mar 2014 08:36:58 AM CST
