My son is interested in guitar lessons so I called up a teacher that our friends were using for their son’s lessons.
The guitarist and I talked for a little while about scheduling the classes. “Actually,” he said, “I’m at the point where gas prices are so high that I am thinking about not driving around to students’ houses, but have them to come to mine.”
Still trying to work these lessons into our weekly craziness, I asked him where he lived. He hesitated, then mentioned a neighborhood that admittedly doesn’t have the best reputation and was a good 30 minute drive from here.
“It’s not as bad a place as you think,” he said quickly. “The neighborhood is pretty safe. You really wouldn’t have to worry about your son here. My wife and I are both artists, so we’re just living where we can afford. And I’m holding down three jobs right now and still can’t make ends meet.”
“Oh, I totally understand,” I said. “I’m a writer.”
He laughed. “So you’re scraping by, too.”
“Not even! But I’m luckily married to someone who isn’t an artist, so I’ve got a personal patron of the arts.”
It’s a sad fact that most writers, artists, and musicians don’t make enough to live on. I get asked a couple of times a month if it’s possible to make a living writing books. It isn’t for me. But maybe if you’re writing a blockbuster book or if you end up with a TV or book deal, or if you write a lot of midlist books in a year (and are getting royalties on your backlist)…yeah, you could do it. But I still don’t think it’s a great living. It makes for nice additional income. Do you have children? Need health insurance? You probably shouldn’t even consider leaving your day job.
To get a hint at what most YA, romance (and, I’ll add—mystery) writers are making for books, here is Brenda Hiatt’s famous “Show Me the Money” post where authors have anonymously written in to tell their advances, etc.
How do most artists get by? If they’re not married to someone who can support them, they have a day job.
You could even find a writing-related day job. I’ve had those in the past. I’ll still occasionally submit articles to one of those weekly or monthly free local periodicals that you’ll see in restaurants and coffee shops, just to keep my hand in it. But I’ve worked for them full-time before, too—you can write articles, sell ads, etc.
There are a lot of writers I know who teach—either part time or full-time.
I know quite a few writers who also freelance. I know a couple of journalists, too.
It’s probably more fun for a writer to find a writing-related day job, but it doesn’t have to be that way, either. And one writer believes that you shouldn’t feel pressured to find a high-paying, prestigious day job, either. I read an interesting post a week or so ago: In Praise of Crummy Day Jobs, on the Genreality blog.
In the post, author Carrie Vaughn mentions that many writers overlook the fact that they don’t have to find and hold down a career-track kind of job…they can find an hourly-pay gig and then come home and write. She wrote:
The thing about all these jobs: I rarely had to work overtime. They weren’t difficult. I usually came home ready to write. In fact, especially at the book store, I’d jot down notes about the current work in progress throughout the day, shove them in my pocket, and in the evening come home, pull out all the notes, and write.
There’s a lot of truth to hackneyed sayings…and ‘starving artist’ definitely isn’t too far off the mark.
Although making time to write involves sacrifice, the nice thing about writing as compared with some of the other arts, is that we can easily slip a notebook into a laptop bag or a purse. We can write a couple of sentences here and there. Harder to do that when you’re lugging around a harp or a baritone or a canvas.
How do you work writing into your life?
I had to ask myself that the hard way as well. My mother discouraged me from becoming an author. I still loved writing, so I studied “Professional and Technical Writing” at school. Right now I’m between contracts, but for the last couple of years I’ve been working as a technical writer. Now I’d like to finish my first novel ;) I also love the mystery genre. Too bad it’s so under appreciated.
Elizabeth – You’ve hit me right (or write ;-) ) where I live, so to speak. I have a “day job,” for which I’m very grateful, especially in this economy. But it doesn’t have much to do with my mystery writing. So I’ve had to be very creative at finding ways to integrate the two, so that I can keep on writing. As you say, unless you’re that lucky person who can hook up with a lucrative book deal or stumble onto a Hollywood blockbuster contract, it’s hard to make a living writing. But here’s a question: if it were really easy to make a lot of money writing, would people get into writing because they love it? Or would it begin to be too “commercial?”
Oh, this is a topic I think about all the time. I like my working life but I am so stressed with not having enough money. I am a therapist so can work my writing around that – but I don’t make much money doing therapy – I won’t refuse anyone who needs help and in this recession folks don’t go to therapists much! I figure that if each of the three books I’ve finished were to be picked up – I might make ten thousand dollars a year for the past ten years. Yep. Not much. My guy is a builder and times haven’t been good for him either but we both love what we do and just muck on. We will be selling our home though. :(
whah!
I have a day job writing at a university, which is great for a day job, but I am constantly frustrated and exhausted by the need to get up at 4:30 or 5 in the morning to get any of my own writing done. When I was married is when I wrote all my picture books, but divorce necessitated the leap into fulltime dayjob world. :( Now I look forward to write-tirement. :)
Giving up my day job? Only in my day dreams.
Fortunately I like teaching, and my students seem to put up with me fairly well so I won´t complain. It could be wonderful to sell a couple of books and earn so much that I could consider early retirement, though. In the meantime I´m happy if the stories I write can pay some of the books I buy ;)
I worked very hard to organize my life so I could survive on a part time job.
I’ve also been treating my writing as a form a “financial management” in that I have been accumulating a body of work for a long time. I have residual income from stories I published a long time ago, I’ve written SEO articles which still pay off. And I invested my money so I have a buffer.
And, I’ve got to say this, I’ve gone over to the dark side and I’m self-publishing on Kindle and other electronic platforms. So far it’s only a trickle of income, but it gives new life to the things I’ve already published, and faster return on the new things I write.
And I don’t give anyone else the rights to kill my series.
Yes, both editing and covers are a challenge when you’re doing it yourself. At the very least, there is a large learning curve.
Heidi–I think that readers love mysteries and are super-supportive. I do think that–years into the process–we can make a living. Sort of! But it would have to be very modest and we would have to be incredibly productive and also have a healthy backlist, too.
Jan–Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that. I think this happens a lot…so many occupations don’t pay what we’re worth.
Margot–I think you’re right that some of the appeal is in the challenge of it all.
Toby–There are definitely big sacrifices involved for anyone who pursues any kind of art, I think.
Dorte–Writing does definitely make for a nice bit of extra income. :)
The Daring Novelist–I think you’re very right about putting things up on Kindle. I’m planning on doing the same–but I’m definitely not expecting the huge success of Konrath and others. Plus there’s the side of needing to do a lot of editing–myself! Without copyeditors, etc. I think it can be a way to have control over our manuscripts and to make income, but with realistic expectations.