If you weren't disheartened before....

[gauchecritic]

... just check out the figures here.

 

[Quine]

You're right but...

Yes, you can see this just by perusing the shelves of used book stores. Even books that do get published (a small percentage of those written) rarely make it big for the author, or even small. I am the published author of a non-fiction book (1991). I spent a year on the book and some $4000 on research. My total gross income for the book for about 3 years before the publisher dropped it from their listings was about $4250... Not exactly big time.

You've got to have more than one reason to write. If you're doing it for the money fine, but do it for something else too or you might as well buy a lottery ticket

 

[CharleyH]

You've got to have more than one reason to write. If you're doing it for the money fine, but do it for something else too or you might as well buy a lottery ticket

A movie contract, perhaps.

The chances, as I see it, particularly with perseverence and determination, are no more or less possible than being an actor, and landing a big role, or getting a job, let alone an interview, in the current marketplace. But of course I am optimitisc.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Agreed. But I would have to add - if you're really a complete masochist, try selling a screenplay. It's hugely difficult to even find someone to send it to, everyone who can pick up a pen seems to have written one, 90% of the sale is not about the script itself, they'll immediately hire a team of other people to re-write it, the actors will make some of it up as they go along, the director will develop a "vision" that may have nothing to do your own, even if they option it you've no idea if they will eventually buy it or just leave it moldering on a desk for a year, even if they buy it you don't know if they will ever make it, if they make it they might not distribute it, and even if it makes it all the way to the big screen, pretty much everyone else will be paid more, lauded more, and have an easier time getting the next gig. Oh, and you'll also discover the exciting world of accounting in which no Hollywood movie whose contributors negotiated any sort of percentage of the profit has ever in fact made a profit in any way, ever.

(No, I haven't. Yes, I plan to. But we all know about my tendencies in the masochism area.)

Shanglan

 

[CharleyH]

Agreed. But I would have to add - if you're really a complete masochist, try selling a screenplay. It's hugely difficult to even find someone to send it to, everyone who can pick up a pen seems to have written one, 90% of the sale is not about the script itself, they'll immediately hire a team of other people to re-write it, the actors will make some of it up as they go along, the director will develop a "vision" that may have nothing to do your own, even if they option it you've no idea if they will eventually buy it or just leave it moldering on a desk for a year, even if they buy it you don't know if they will ever make it, if they make it they might not distribute it, and even if it makes it all the way to the big screen, pretty much everyone else will be paid more, lauded more, and have an easier time getting the next gig. Oh, and you'll also discover the exciting world of accounting in which no Hollywood movie whose contributors negotiated any sort of percentage of the profit has ever in fact made a profit in any way, ever.

(No, I haven't. Yes, I plan to. But we all know about my tendencies in the masochism area.)

Shanglan

ROFL.
So are you saying write a piece of art and it will turn into the blockbuster Home Alone? Or write a piece of shit that will turn into an Academy award? Joking, of course. Better get me some friends in high places - lol.