The new issue of RWR has an article titled Reality Check by Diane Pershing. It is, well, rather depressing. I’m not saying I disagree with any of it–I don’t. It is just that sometimes seeing what you already know in black and white, can be a bit of a downer.
The big kicker for me was that, according to an unofficial survey by Suzanne Brockmann in 2000, only around eight percent of published romance authors made enough money to consider it a full time job. Eeek!
Now, here’s my question–why is that? I think a lot of writers don’t really want a full time career writing. They like being more casual about it–not having to constantly have something out there, constantly having to evolve. And I think to make it in this business full-time, you do have to do those things. Sure it’s possible you will be one of the few who hits on her perfect subgenre right when that market is taking off and have sale after sale without having to rethink anything–but more likely you won’t. More likely you will have to be willing to change. You will have to keep your ears and eyes open, thinking about what is the best move for you. You may have to make some tough decisions–like firing your agent, or turning down a contract. You may have to write twenty proposals, none of them making it. And you may go years without a sale. It’s ugly, but it’s true.
The question is, is it worth it to you? Is your goal to do this full time or is writing as a hobby enough? What would you be willing to do to keep your career going? Where would you draw the line?
Lori
My goal is to do this full time and make a living from it. I do know in order to do that it’ll take time. Many think writing is easy. You do it and you will make money. It someimes takes years in order to make a living from writing.
by Gina August 29th, 2005 at 5:58 pmMy goal is to do it full time, the problem is I’m not yet sure what I should be prepared to do to make that happen…
by MartyK August 31st, 2005 at 2:22 pmMy original plan was to write and make enough to quit my day job so I could write full time. But my goal has changed since then. Or maybe not so much changed but my attitude on how I’m going to acheive a career as a writer has. And that’s my ultimate goal. A career. And that’s one of the reason’s I took a serious look at what I was doing and where I was submitting at the first of the year. I set my goals based on that.
by Teresa September 6th, 2005 at 7:19 am