Novelist as a Vocation
Many articles and books make it seem as though it might be reasonable to try and be a novelist<p>The truth is that most short story publishers pay about 3-10 cents per word, so the pay for your work is usually less than $300-500. Most novels sell less than 1000 copies, and often far less; even then, the author might only get 10% of the price tag unless they self publish (but then sales are apparently 1&#x2F;10 as high)<p>If you earned half minimum wage, you would have cause to celebrate!<p>Even authors of bestsellers often have day jobs unless they have a string of huge successes. That’s why we see so many sequels — less risk to the author who sees their chance to finally be a full time writer<p>There are so many sites out there right now hosting free fiction that it’s hard for many to find readers, even if the work is released for free. Many authors I know spend more time on self promotion than in writing due to this: otherwise, nobody will ever read their work in the first place<p>Publishers are now preferring authors who already have large followings, which reinforces this dynamic<p>For some people, writing is a vocation, but for 99.999% of the others, it’s a dream or a hobby, or a way to meet like minded people and enjoy being part of a community<p>Anyway: go out and read some small publisher books. Many are fantastic! There are a stunning number of great books around with 0-3 reviews that never had a shot — look for them sometime!