Weekly Writers: Money Money Money

Sing along if you know the words

Here’s the Weekly Writers Monday post. This post is for paid subscribers only.

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Money Money Money

The alternative name for this post, which has less resemblance to a Billy Idol song, is: “Can I make a living as a writer?”

As you can imagine, this is difficult to answer, because it depends so much on factors such as who you are, what you write, how well you write (both craft and art), how fast you write, how lucky you are, how closely your output fits current trends and so on. But the related question “Can a person make a living as a writer?” can be answered: yes. Of course. Though it will take time and a lot of work to reach that point.

I won’t sugar-coat it: writing is no fast track to easy money, so if you’d hoped it was, let me divest you of that assumption right this minute. Many authors will spend years learning this wonderful craft and writing good books, but still never earn as much as they'd have made working behind a bar. I’ll back that up with figures in a later post, in case you think this is just my attempt to dissuade the competition! I just want to encourage a realistic idea of what you are up against, and the quality you will need to strive at to stand out. Brandon Sanderson has a short FAQ called “Can I Make A Living As A Writer?” which answers the same question.