Making a Living as a Novelist

Every novelist dreams of leaving their job to write full time. However, I read a survey recently that claimed only 900 novelists in the United States make their living solely from writing novels, or about 700 less than the number of men playing in the NFL. This certainly appears to stack the deck against the vast majority of us hoping to quit our jobs and write full time.

With fewer people reading (the number is down 10 percentage points since 1982, according to a study by the National Endowment for the Arts) and thus fewer people buying books, what was always a tough market just keeps getting tougher. Many authors never even make back their initial advance from the publisher, which is causing advances to shrink as well. However, I choose to look at the amazing 900 full-time authors and see them as proof that it can be done.

I think there are two main ways to make a living strictly from writing novels (both of which assume that you have overcome the battle to finish your first novel, find an agent to represent you, and get a publisher to release your book). The first is the home run novel.

This means publishing a novel that, for whatever reason, so resonates with the public that it takes on a life of its own, as was the case with The DaVinci Code and the Harry Potter series. You can also hit a home run if Oprah decides she likes your novel. In either case, the way you would be making your living would be from royalties on the tens of millions of copies sold.

The second option returns us to the land of reality. Most of us will never have a book sell in the millions of copies; our best hope is to focus on being as prolific as possible without sacrificing quality. What I mean by this is that you need to write as many quality novels as you possibly can. If you can't sell a million copies of one book, then sell 100,000 copies of ten novels or 20,000 copies of fifty. The outcome is the same.