Authors' incomes

[Kelliezgirl]

Tough way to make a living...

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw...le/93301-author-incomes-post-small-gains.html

The survey, which drew responses from 5,699 published authors, found that in 2022, their median gross pre-tax income from their books was $2,000. When combined with other writing-related income, the total annual median income was $5,000.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Ars gratia artis, I guess.

 

[Bamagan]

Reminds me of a joke. What's the difference between an author and a large pizza?
The large pizza can feed a family of four.

(Well, for one night, anyway.)

 

[PeytonMirabelle]

I haven't tried to sell any of my erotica or steamy romance yet, but I've been publishing and selling fantasy for several years. While I do okay, I will say that if I had to rely solely on that income to survive ... well, in the words of one my generation's greatest sages, I would be eating a steady diet of government cheese while living in a van down by the river.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

You need to adapt or you fall behind.

I have placed an emphasis lately on creating audio versions of my past published works. The prevailing belief in mainstream publishing is that this not only generates more revenue for a particular piece of work, but it also increases sales of e-book and printed versions of the same work. (I don't believe this fits into the "non-book" revenue discussed in this survey.)

The costs of creating the audio version need to be weighed against the potential increase in overall revenue. Comparative examples are hard to find, so sometimes it's a "crap-shoot". This is especially true when the major distribution for audiobooks remains under the control of Amazon, which owns Audible.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Tough way to make a living...

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw...le/93301-author-incomes-post-small-gains.html

The survey, which drew responses from 5,699 published authors, found that in 2022, their median gross pre-tax income from their books was $2,000. When combined with other writing-related income, the total annual median income was $5,000.

Whoa, I feel much better about my writing income now, given I only have a couple of novels out there and one was published in 2018, and they're still steadily generating coffee money every quarter. Just given me an incentive to get my butt moving and publish a few more, which I have been intending to do every year for the last three or four.

 

[TxRad]

Having a known publisher and a good number of books already out and a number ready for release bumps the bottom line up quickly. At least I'm above the poverty level but not by much. But being retired with another source or two of income makes it livable. I'm not complaining. Well, not much anyway.

 

[Devinter]

You need to adapt or you fall behind.

I have placed an emphasis lately on creating audio versions of my past published works. The prevailing belief in mainstream publishing is that this not only generates more revenue for a particular piece of work, but it also increases sales of e-book and printed versions of the same work. (I don't believe this fits into the "non-book" revenue discussed in this survey.)

I had this exact same discussion with a friend of mine whilst hosting a charity event about six months ago, as we sat down for the following dinner, and we both agreed that this is the correct way to go. By some miracle, the person on my left - whom I knew vaguely but had no idea what he did for a living - leans over and say something along the lines of "I work for Audible. Send me a sample of your books." The odds of that happening, eh?

We've been in talks since then, and it's more or less greenlit that they'll be publishing one of my books this year. They will record the audiobook version for free using a talented voice actor. However, they are buying the exclusive rights to the book so I cannot sell it anywhere else, and I won't make any royalties on it afterwards (audiobook version, that is). It's a one-time payment. But it's quite significant, especially since the book will be in Swedish and we only have a population of 8 million people - and thus, at best, 8 million readers if EVERYONE read it/listened to it.

Anyways, sorry for going off on a tangent. It was just such a shock when it happened. I agree that you should go ahead and create those audio versions. People live busy lives and don't have the same time as before to sit down with a proper paperback.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Having a known publisher and a good number of books already out and a number ready for release bumps the bottom line up quickly. At least I'm above the poverty level but not by much. But being retired with another source or two of income makes it livable. I'm not complaining. Well, not much anyway.

Don't know if an external link is allowed, but I'd be interested to know how I could check these out.

 

[StillStunned]

We've been in talks since then, and it's more or less greenlit that they'll be publishing one of my books this year. They will record the audiobook version for free using a talented voice actor. However, they are buying the exclusive rights to the book so I cannot sell it anywhere else, and I won't make any royalties on it afterwards (audiobook version, that is). It's a one-time payment. But it's quite significant, especially since the book will be in Swedish and we only have a population of 8 million people - and thus, at best, 8 million readers if EVERYONE read it/listened to it.

That's amazing, congratulations!

 

[Kelliezgirl]

The audio book issue is kind of buried towards the end but they mention:
The audiobook format is a dramatically underpublished growth opportunity: 55% of traditional and 64% of self-published authors have none of their books in audiobook format.

It does seem like an untapped market. I know there are good voice actors who will record the book, do all the editing and so forth basically for a share of the royalties. Seems like a low cost way to expand your reach.

 

[Stimtheone]

Meanwhile I know that my books can't be published out there because most distributors reject stuff that portrays incest as good or violence against women as good. So my income is from my reporting job.

 

[Devinter]

That's amazing, congratulations!

Thank you for saying this, but if I'm honest I struggled with this entire ordeal on some sort of moral level for months. It really solidified how important it is to just be in the right place at the right time. Also, I couldn't help but feel like there was some sort of minor nepotism angle to it since I've met the man multiple times, both before and after this charity event, under circumstances where the general public aren't welcome. (Invite only events, essentially.) Because he had seen me speak multiple times at these events and I think he was willing to put his faith in me for that reason primarily. I doubt he would extend the same chance to any random person sitting next to him at - say - McDonalds, for example.

 

[TxRad]

Don't know if an external link is allowed, but I'd be interested to know how I could check these out.

PM sent

 

[davion2308]

I have made exactly $0.00 USD for the hundreds of thousands of words I've typed.

My goal for 2024 is to make anything at all on Kindle Unlimited writing smut. I've read some of what's on there and the dozen "H" stories I have are better than the variety that's out there on KU.

Wish me luck! And DM me if you've had success. I'd love to hear from others.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I have made exactly $0.00 USD for the hundreds of thousands of words I've typed.

My goal for 2024 is to make anything at all on Kindle Unlimited writing smut. I've read some of what's on there and the dozen "H" stories I have are better than the variety that's out there on KU.

Wish me luck! And DM me if you've had success. I'd love to hear from others.

That's actually a good question, and sort of ties into the topic. If you've published 'outside' how do your scores here relate to the reaction in say KU? Is there a correlation at all? Can I assume If I got a red H, that it will pass general public muster?

 

[davion2308]

That's actually a good question, and sort of ties into the topic. If you've published 'outside' how do your scores here relate to the reaction in say KU? Is there a correlation at all? Can I assume If I got a red H, that it will pass general public muster?

I haven't yet. I have my third-party format specialist (my coworker who's helping me). I get started this week and I'll report back. I don't expect anything the first few weeks or months but the goal is to pump out two stories a month, every month, between 10k-15k words, more or less. We'll see what happens.

 

[TxRad]

You might find longer stories sell better.

 

[HeyAll]

Here's a list of the top erotica authors on Patreon:

https://graphtreon.com/top-patreon-creators/adult-writing

They make serious money per month. Top person makes 12-14 thousand monthly. The key, as you can notice, is releasing chapters as exclusives and having a niche area (ie scifi, mind control, harems, etc...)

I learned a lot from BreaktheBar, who also posts on Lit and this forum, and he's talked about writing 10,000 words per week and he makes great money per month using this strategy. This seems a lot harder than traditional publishing because it a lot of strategy and luck to promote, but as you can see the payoff is much greater.

 

[Trionyx]

Income? You mean some people make money doing this?

 

[StillStunned]

Thank you for saying this, but if I'm honest I struggled with this entire ordeal on some sort of moral level for months. It really solidified how important it is to just be in the right place at the right time. Also, I couldn't help but feel like there was some sort of minor nepotism angle to it since I've met the man multiple times, both before and after this charity event, under circumstances where the general public aren't welcome. (Invite only events, essentially.) Because he had seen me speak multiple times at these events and I think he was willing to put his faith in me for that reason primarily. I doubt he would extend the same chance to any random person sitting next to him at - say - McDonalds, for example.

I wouldn't feel too bad. Right place, right time is right. It happens. When I think of the coincidences that led to me being at the top of my profession, and being married to the most wonderful redhead in the world... I'm talking about at least a dozen random choices and happenstance over the course of nearly a decade. All leading to being in the right place at the right time.

Maybe it helps if you think of it as good karma for being at the charity events. Or maybe just recognition of your talent. I've seen how you write in English. I imagine you're even better in Swedish. Sure, you got lucky, but publishers don't do favours - no-one in business does, not when there's a lot of money on the line, not to mention their reputation. If they're willing to give you a chunk of money, and devote so many resources to your book, it's safe to say it's worth it.

 

[TxRad]

Right place, right time, luck, whatever you want to call it has it's own place. My mainstream career came from a non erotic short story I did here on Lit. A reader showed it to an editor friend of hers and the rest is history.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I had this exact same discussion with a friend of mine whilst hosting a charity event about six months ago, as we sat down for the following dinner, and we both agreed that this is the correct way to go. By some miracle, the person on my left - whom I knew vaguely but had no idea what he did for a living - leans over and say something along the lines of "I work for Audible. Send me a sample of your books." The odds of that happening, eh?

We've been in talks since then, and it's more or less greenlit that they'll be publishing one of my books this year. They will record the audiobook version for free using a talented voice actor. However, they are buying the exclusive rights to the book so I cannot sell it anywhere else, and I won't make any royalties on it afterwards (audiobook version, that is). It's a one-time payment. But it's quite significant, especially since the book will be in Swedish and we only have a population of 8 million people - and thus, at best, 8 million readers if EVERYONE read it/listened to it.

Anyways, sorry for going off on a tangent. It was just such a shock when it happened. I agree that you should go ahead and create those audio versions. People live busy lives and don't have the same time as before to sit down with a proper paperback.

Great to hear.

I've discovered that the audiobook arena is full of almost as many scams and pitfalls as traditional publishing of e-book and printed books. Most distributors frown on an author creating their own version of the recorded material, insisting that their in-house voice actors and sound engineers do the work (usually at a cost). Many don't even allow the author any say in what the voices sound like or how the read content is produced.

The exclusivity you mentioned is also common with both Audible and Amazon (which owns Audible). Findaway and other audiobook publishers also want to control most production aspects and you can expect to see the costs being close to $5,000 per hour with some of them.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Meanwhile I know that my books can't be published out there because most distributors reject stuff that portrays incest as good or violence against women as good. So my income is from my reporting job.

Last time I looked there were one or two publishers for incest but they sell of their own websites rather than from Amazon and Smashwords and the like. I hadn't looked into it very deeply tho. That can have a bit of a deterimental effect if you go mainstream, unless you do it under yet another pseudonym, which after all is easy enough

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Great to hear.

I've discovered that the audiobook arena is full of almost as many scams and pitfalls as traditional publishing of e-book and printed books. Most distributors frown on an author creating their own version of the recorded material, insisting that their in-house voice actors and sound engineers do the work (usually at a cost). Many don't even allow the author any say in what the voices sound like or how the read content is produced.

The exclusivity you mentioned is also common with both Audible and Amazon (which owns Audible). Findaway and other audiobook publishers also want to control most production aspects and you can expect to see the costs being close to $5,000 per hour with some of them.

At $5k per hour I can't imagine that many smaller authors would consider that model viable.