OK, I'm sure this kind of question has come up before, but what percentage of cover price does a competent, established writer of, say, genre fiction, who can steadily sell year in, year out, with a new book every year or so, get? Or put another way how many books a year does such a writer have to sell to make a comfortable living - say £40-£50,000. (ignoring the possibility of TV/film rights and aother extras) I'm sure there's no simple answer to this. What kind of deal would an established, non-stellar writer like this be looking for in the long term

Pete

Hi Pete,

I may be slightly out-of-date but here's my tuppence-worth from a few years back... Royalties range wildly these days because of all the different outlets for selling books. Authors might get 8-12% of the cover price when their books are sold through the trade (so perhaps a quid for a hardback), but can expect to receive far less for books sold through book clubs or supermarkets, and even less with the direct market (I'm talking 10p per book). This is why so few writers 'just write'.

Please don't make me work out how many books you'd have to seel to make £50,000 a year because (a) maths makes my head hurt and (b) you won't like the answer.

Myrtle



<Added>

Seel? No. Sorry. Sell. I'm tired.

Thanks Myrtle

So in the crudest terms it's like maybe 60-70,000 books a year, every year, to live the dream? That's a lot right? I guess the answer is don't do it if for the money!

Pete

Nik, I can honestly say, no, don't do it for the money. Myrtle's sums make sense to me - the majority of books are sold through 'high discount' routes now, where the 10% royalty is on net receipts not cover price. If your officially £15.99 hardback is sold to Asda at 60% discount, that's not a lot of money coming back to you, specially if they only printed 1000 of it. Ditto for the £5.99 paperback.

The money to be made from being a writer seems to be from subsidiary things - journalism, reviews, festivals, teaching.

Emma

Nik, The chances of your making real money through the sale of your books is very small... even if you wrote a couple of best-sellers.

To become a full-time author you have to depend upon receiving a good income over the many years you will be a professional.

Sure, the 'extra' income mentioned by Emma will no doubt be needed, but a really welcome windfall might come from the selling of the film rights. That downpayment can be invested and the percentage you negotiate from the Royalties will also be welcomed... but don't take out a big mortgage on the strength of the MS you have just submitted to an Agent!

Len

<Added>

Sorry Pete... and apologies to Nik.
It's your fault Emma, but all three of us forgive you.

Len

Thanks Emma, Len

This seems positively bizarre. Bizarre that even with the kind of model outlined it's hard to make a reasonable living. Isn't something a litle bit skewed here in the writer's disfavour? Is it a mug's game then, even if you can really do the job????

Pete

Len, you're so kind to forgive me, if I needed it

Pete, the thing is, most of us can't help ourselves - writing wins every time. I think we just re-define 'comfortable living', and earn in order to write, not write in order to earn. And the tax advantages of being self employed help. One (not the only) of the reasons I decided to keep on with the PhD, even after I signed with Headline Review and Morrow, was because it should help me to develop the teaching/lecturing side of things. I really don't want the pressure to write more and faster than is good for my work, and I'm not relying on fiction to keep me in my old age, that's for sure.

Len's right about the film rights, but that's so, so, so rare. Mere options aren't huge amounts unless you're Michael Crichton, and the big majority of film options never turn into films.

Emma