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Writing fiction for money
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I was reading a lot of threads concerning freelance writing, but non of them where about fiction writing (only content, copy, blog, SEO, etc).
I worked for Fiverr.com as a ghostwriter for an year now, but there isn't much work there (at least work that pays reasonably) however I got some good feedback there. I have a decent knowledge of: history of art, history of philosophy, major art movements, film theory, theater theory, aesthetics and political philosophy.
So, what is the best way to start? Should I email some magazines or? Should I present myself as an author or a ghostwriter?
My goal is to make a living writing fiction, any advice is welcome. If there is a similar thread out there send me the link.
Top Comment: Firstly, lower your expectations. There are very few writers who can live comfortably by writing alone. Many if not most have to rely on side jobs, whether it's regular joe office work, teaching writing classes, or writing nonfiction articles for magazines. Unless you work on the side or you're in that .1% that's in the right place at the right time with the right stuff, you're going to be a starving artist type. So what's the best way to start? That's a long debated topic, but a few general ways to go about it are: Write short stories and submit to literary journals. This is typically a good way to get a pseudo-starter writing career. Starting out with smaller journals leads to name recognition, and larger journals will begin to take you seriously, and actually look at you for longer than the 10 seconds you get while their interns shuffle through the slush pile. If novels are your end goal, short stories again are a good way to get in good with literary agents. They'll take much more interest in the guy who wrote a story in Tin House than Joe Noname. Just start writing novels. This is probably a more challenging way to get started. It will take longer and there's no guarantee of a payout at the end. You could easily waste a year writing something that no one else will ever see. Plus, you'll be that Joe Noname submitting queries to literary agents who will have nothing to go on but your word. Self publish. Similar to short stories, but without the hassle of being rejected by magazines or agents. HOWEVER! You are fighting to make your name in an already overcrowded market. If you don't have the skills, the patience, or even if you do, but not the good luck or timing, you won't be making a living off of it. Plus, unless you have some brutally honest friends, how can you know your writing isn't just shit? Look at all the self published shit there is. Long story short: life writing is hard. You won't be the next Stephen King. You probably won't see your book in a Barnes and Noble. You might make some extra money on the side. Get a job doing something you don't hate, and write like hell until you make something good. Good luck.
Where's the money/career in writing?
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How do different forms of writing compare in their profitability for the average good, competent, but not exceptional writer (let's exclude the 1% like JK Rowling for this one.) Novels? Screenplays? TV Dramas, Plays, Short Stories, non-fiction, news and comment, something else?
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John Scalzi's Utterly Useless Writing Advice.
John Scalzi: Unasked-For Advice to New Writers About Money, "I made $164,000 last year from my writing."
Scalzi is one of the few writers to actually discuss money.
I can't find it at the moment, but I believe he's mentioned that much of his income comes from freelance corporate writing and that he writes something on the order of 1,000,000 words per year.
Writers of Reddit - How do you make money with an original novel these days?
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Short version - As a lifelong bookworm, I finally crossed over and wrote something. I'm hoping to have it fully edited and complete in the next month.
What next?
From what I understand, it's hard to make money on a book now, and have read horror stories about people losing money by selling on Amazon and large retailers.
Is making money with a novel wishful thinking these days?
Top Comment: I don't know much about the self-publishing world, but here's what I know about traditional: Is it wishful thinking to make money with a novel? Ot really. It happens. Is it wishful thinking to make a living from writing? Probably. Some personal experience... I earned a 5-figure advance which was enough to allow me to go to part-time professionally for a year, but not enough to keep me from having to drive Lyft to make ends meet now that my 2nd book is taking longer than I expected for submission. To earn a living with writing novels traditionally, rumor has it that the magic number of books needed to make this happen with a big imprint is 5. Your 5th book is the one that might push you over into a writing income which lets you live modestly without having to work outside of writing. Difficulty: Most traditionally published writers don't get more than two books because most traditionally published writers don't sell enough of their first two books to warrant a third. For every Rick Yancy, there are 5,000 traditionally published writers like me who are driving Lyft and working part time, or like friends I have who're still working full time, or like other friends who have income from high-earning family members to compensate for their lack of income. But this isn't new. The truth of the matter is that it's never been easy to make a living as a novelist -- even before the advent of the free-content and self-publishing bonanza, there just wasn't that much money to be made in books because there aren't that many people who buy them. And yet, I'm happy to drive Lyft if it means I can keep writing, and I'd do it even if there were no money at all because writing novels is like solving the world's most complicated jigsaw puzzle and I love puzzles so much I'd do them for free.
Suggestions for making income from your fiction writing?
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I am working on a novel (beginning stages) and I want to consider all avenues for getting it out there, and hopefully making some money from it. Any thoughts? Self-publishing would take some good marketing which I know from having a YouTube channel, that’s too difficult to be ideal.
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Hey, so... I just read some of the comments and saw a ton of pessimism. While nobody is really wrong, statistically speaking, I feel like you need to hear the other side of it. Yes, most people who write barely make money from it. Yes, it's hard. But it's doable.
I started self-pubbing romance books about 2 and a half years ago. I made 20k in my first 4 months. I made 500k the next 12 months. I made even more last year. I recently got a traditional publishing deal, but I'd already made a million dollars from self-publishing romance books before then. I design and make my own covers in photoshop. I format the books myself. I spend about 3-4 weeks writing a 45-55k book, pay an editor $300 to go through it, then I do my best to self-edit on top of that. I hit publish, run my own advertisements on Facebook and Amazon, and I also send it out in 3-4 paid newsletter promotions. Then I start the next one.
It's really stressful, and it's by no means an easy job. Even though from an outside perspective, it probably looks like I just have an easy road to top 10 books on Amazon by now because so many of mine have done well, it never feels like that from my side of things. I'm constantly in fear of not living up to the expectations of my readers. I'm hyper-aware that I am replaceable, and if my quality ever starts to fall, someone else can and will take my place. Nobody owes me their attention or their purchases, so I have to earn it with every book.
So, yeah. You can still make money writing. I had my own advantages and lucky breaks getting into the business, namely that my brother had already spent about a year writing erotica short stories and 2 months trying to figure out novels and Kindle Unlimited when I started. He helped me avoid some beginner mistakes and probably let me skip about 3-4 months of frustration and trial and error. So I didn't just decide one day to do this and figure it out all on my own. However, you can also find communities and places where people are trying to do what you want to do, and you can give yourself similar advantages to what I had.
It's out there to be taken. One of the biggest obstacles in your way is going to be comments like the ones you got on this post. I don't mean any offense to the commenters, either. Their advice IS practical. And it's probably the nice thing to do if you care about someone to try to make sure they know writing is a dangerous career path to invest your energy in. Nobody but you knows if you're capable of writing something worth being read. That's in your head. It's in what kind of determination you have to grow and adapt from your failures, because you're going to fail a lot as you go.
Everybody would've thought I was crazy if I told them what I was doing, so I didn't tell anyone. I wrote five books and made $20,000 before I started telling people. And you know what I did? I told them how much money I'd made because I liked seeing the shock on their faces. It's why I still like talking about how much I've earned. Is it bragging? Sure. But it's also part of what motivated me to work so hard. I think of all the people who wanted nothing more than to convince me I couldn't do this and all the people who would've laughed if I'd told them.
I don't really talk about how much I've made anymore, at least in person.
Here's the real truth. If you want to do something extraordinary, you are *going* to be battling the odds. Are people right that most people don't make it? Yes. But do you know one reason most people don't make it? Most people don't care enough to try when they know the odds are against them. They definitely don't care enough to keep trying when it looks like everyone was right. A bunch of them see the challenge and toss their dream in the trash. A bunch more give it a shot and they fail. Maybe they even try one more time but they still fail. They toss their dream in the trash too. Those people are the statistics.
If you know you're willing to keep trying and keep learning from your mistakes, then the statistics should be irrelevant to you. The only statistic you should care about is that you're ready to try harder than 99% of the people who came before you. Bust your ass, swallow your pride, and do the work. Don't be afraid of failing. Embrace the fact that you'll fail. Make each failure a challenge to learn as much as possible and do that much better the next time. Eventually, you'll realize that your definition of a failure has become someone else's idea of success.
So, with all due respect, screw the people who want to talk you out of doing what you care about. They probably don't mean harm by it, but they're doing harm. Some of them might be jaded because they tried, failed, and gave up. Some might be bitter because they never tried but wished they had. Others might honestly be trying to keep you from wasting your time with something that isn't likely to work out for you.
But forget all of that. Give it a shot. Give it a hundred shots. A thousand, if that's what it takes. But I guarantee you this: just being ready to fail and willing to learn from your mistakes is going to separate you from those statistics. Your chances aren't going to be as slim as everyone says.
**Thanks for the gold. I always get annoyed when I see people editing and thanking someone for gold, but once you see that someone did it for you... it feels kind of rude not to, haha. So thank you! I appreciate it :)
Is it possible to make money off of writing a novel? Seriously asking.
Main Post: Is it possible to make money off of writing a novel? Seriously asking.
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Absolutely. I have made tens of dollars off of my novels.
How much have you guys made from writing?
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I have published 7 novels on kdp and have only made like 25 dollars. I barely even sell one novel a month. How many do you guys sell per month? How profitable was your first novel as compared to your second and third and fourth etc? Did you advertise your book? If so how? Do you see your lack of sales breaking your willpower?
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Have you tried to actually advertise your books at all? Or make sure they're up to trade publishing standards?
Some self-publishers are successful because they take on the burden a publishing company originally shoulders, doing all marketing and outreach on their own and making sure their books are as well-edited as they can make them. It's essentially a full-time job on their end.
Many self-publishers seem to think that simply writing a quick draft of a manuscript and uploading it to Amazon and then watching Netflix series is the extent of their responsibilities. These people are essentially shouting in the bleachers at the Super Bowl and wondering why people on the other side of the stadium aren't responding to them.
If you want to publish a book and then let other people handle the rest, you need to trade publish. If you want to publish on your own, you need to do all the other work yourself. The numbers you're currently giving me (both in terms of books published and books sold) suggest that you're currently spewing out half-edited rough drafts with absolutely no marketing, no mailing lists, and essentially no existing consumer base as a result. This is not how you should self-publish if you have any hope whatsoever of becoming even remotely well-known. You have a huge personal responsibility to be your own agent, your own publicist, your own editor, and your own marketer all at once if you expect to sell through KDP or other similar systems.
Best way to make money as a writer?
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I've been writing articles for content mills for awhile and now I'm working on writing/selling erotica on Amazon. Does anybody know of any other ways to make a good income by writing?
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What content mills are you using?
I make $500-800 a week from Content mills, so there's definitely money to be had.
How to make money writing?
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I'll try to keep this short. Recently my boyfriend was in a car accident and my car then broke down. We had to burn through most of our savings to get our cars situated and start paying his medical bills. Unfortunately rent is still due - two months worth in ten days or we get evicted.
I have the next two days off from work and was wondering if there are any websites that you all may know of that offer quick compensation for written work? Even if it's only a small amount per piece it's better than nothing and any help is appreciated!
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Honestly writing is anything but quick money. If you like it I do recommend it as a way to supplement your income, but nothing about the pay day is quick.
You can always look into those massive content aggregators who same to have the quickest pay schedules for writing articles like "How to tie a shoe," or "How to change a fluorescent lightbulb," but you're probably better off getting a side job waitressing for fast cash. You'll make more hourly.
If you want to make decent money writing quickly (and by quickly I mean a paycheck in as many as 90 days and it won't be much at first but will grow after that, then write decent shorts (6,000-20,000 words) in popular genres and sell them on Amazon. Popular genres are young adult, new adult, romance, erotica, thriller, and horror.