I just recently signed with a new agent. I had one for my first book, but not my second. He is handling my third, we're in negotiations right now. I just delivered a proposal for my fourth, and I'm working on a new genre for my fifth. I'm disheartened because in 5 years I've only been paid $10,000 for my first book, and the first payment on my second. How do I make a sustainable living this way?
If you want to earn a living you have to write a book that a LOT of people are willing to part with beer money to buy. It's this simple.
And most have to learn how to write fairly fast. There's a correlation not only between writhing faster and earning more money, but also in writing more and getting better. But, look, that's how much you've made because that's how much you've written, and how much what you've written has earned.
Most who try writing never earn anything. That's just how it is. Others write a first novel quickly, and it earns millions. Others have to write a dozen or more novels before the write one that grabs readers enough to grant the writer a decent, or extremely good, living. Take away either, and I'd stop writing tomorrow, though it's getting to late in life to worry about that. After almost thirty-six years, I'm still making money, and I still enoy the writing process, so I guess I'll keep writing until I die, or retire because I can't keep working.
But I write my ass off to earn a good living, if you can call five hours per day, five days per week, writing my ass off. I do write a lot more when deadlines creep up on me, or when I foolishly agree to take on more projects that I can easily handle, but the five/five is my norm.
I write novels in more than one genre, for adults, and for children. I've even written a category romance. I also write short stories, screenplays, articles, essays, poems, and I once made a dollar per word for writing a one hundred word story to go with a chili recipe.
It's been a very good way to live, and I've managed to raise three kids on my pay.
I've had lean times, up to my neck in money times, and mostly between the two times, but lean times, doing pretty good times, or loaded times, it's always because of what I write, never because anyone is taking advantage of me. They aren't.
I might make more if I concentrated on only one or two areas. I almost certainly would. But the joy factor means I write what I want to write, and I love writing in all these areas.
One thing I will say is that I've always done better when I think about how much I make per hour, rather than by hoping a given project
might make me a lot of money somewhere down the line. If your hourly wage isn't acceptable. write more things, and in more areas. Very, very few writers can earn a living by writing slowly.
I understand being disheartened. I write for money, and I write because I really enjoy the writing process. But I think writing may be the fairest business out there. How much I earn is always determined by my own work ethic, and my own talent.