To just quit work and finally write my books?

If you can afford to retire now then I think it's a great idea. But I think that has to be your benchmark for deciding if it's viable. You should not be expecting to make any money of it, even though it sounds like you're very talented.

Get your book made into a screenplay, then a series or film. I've been told that's the only way to make money. Easier said than done!

I think it's a bad idea. Being a published author these days is incredibly hard, especially with publishing houses giving the majority of the big advances and deals to already famous people. I would never give up a permanent job to do this. It's bonkers. The chances of getting a book deal are miniscule for someone who is not famous/has no links to someone famous.

Write in your spare time.

You could but something to bear in mind is that at least with trad publishing going from no draft to receiving an advance in 18 months is practically impossible. I dont kniw about self publishing

Would your company consider a sabbatical? Perhaps take a few months off to see if you could make it work, with a job to go back to if it didn't work out?

Agree with what both have said here. I have many author friends, including some whose published novels have won major prizes, and they all have day jobs.

If you want to take 18 months off to write and you can afford it, I think that’s fine. But see it as a gift you’re giving yourself, not as something that’s likely to build up an alternative income stream.

The market seems flooded with celebrities writing books. That must make it harder for unknown writers to make a living from writing.

Carve out time around work to write, OP. Harsh though it may sound, if you don’t want to/think it’s too tiring, you don’t want to do it enough. What everyone else said about everyone needing a job as well as writing earnings. Plus, your first book may not sell. My first book got me an agent, but two novels then failed to sell. It was my fourth book that sold. Think about that.

Write in the evening, I've done 55k words just writing on my phone at night in bed.

You only live once, do you want to live with the regret? Ca you easily go back to work if you don’t end up writing it? What is the plan B if it doesn’t work out. If you have those bases covered then I would go for it.

If you cant go part time in your present job why not try a bit of quiet quitting so that you don't feel so exhausted? At the moment the job is spoiling your leisure time. Stick strictly to your scheduled hours, don't put in any extra effort and start to cruise.Let the work pile up if necessary. I did this for a year. I wasn't writing a book I was researching my uni application which back in those days (no internet) was a year long process.

If you decide to do it, I'd strongly advise indie over trad. I started five years ago and decided from the start I wanted a steady income more than the kudos of saying I was trad published. After writing twenty books, i have now replaced my teaching salary, and my income is rising with each new book. As long as you can keep each book you write in the top 10k to 15k or so on Amazon, which isn't that difficult to do, you can make a living income at this. But trad publishing is notoriously poorly paid versus indie, who get to keep a large percentage of their profits and final say on covers, ads etc.

I should add that you have to be prepared to write genre rather than literary fiction if you want to do this, and to write in series. Women's fiction, cosy mysteries, thrillers, romance etc. can all do very well on Amazon, particularly if you sign up for the KIndle Unlimited programme, which gives me millions of page reads per year without any extra advertising, pushes every new book I write to all the previous readers of that series, and provides more than half of my overall income.

Join some FB groups like 20 Books to 50K and read their backlist of posts and replies if you want to make a start doing this for yourself and running your own business rather than letting someone else dictate when and how often you can publish a new book. It isn't for everyone, but it's far more doable than most people would have you believe. Your timetable is your own, and it's something you never need retire from if you don't want to. I only wish I'd started doing this far earlier.

It's extremely difficult to do this. Possibly even harder than getting published in the first place. DH has written several (after being a successful author who made most of his money from tutoring and appearance work), been shortlisted for various prizes. He's attending an event tonight where one of his screenplays is shortlisted, we expect it to lead to nothing.

I’ve been a freelance copywriter for 16 years but AI has decimated the industry. Up until recently, I’ve always had clients queuing up for my services.

I’ve switched to writing fiction, and what’s happening there?

The market is being deluged with shitty AI-written books. I’m in quite a few AI Author groups, just to keep an eye on what’s happening, and they are churning out hundreds of books. The issue is that it makes it harder to get seen when the market is so saturated.

You may well be an outstanding author but that isn’t your challenge. It’s marketing your book and getting seen by the right readers. It’s enormously difficult even if your book is excellent.

As an aside, don’t forget you’ll need funds for editing and to get a cover done. It isn’t cheap producing a book that’s of an acceptable standard.

Write your book - carve out time!! Do you listen to writing podcasts? If you have 10k words of planning it sounds as if you could be procrastinating when you could be writing… There are some really good podcasts that can help with managing to write on limited time.

If you can afford to do this then go for it. Authors don’t tend to earn very well so obviously you need to be prepared for that and not deluded enough to expect millions! I don’t recommend self publication, try to send it to proper publishers. But yes life is too short, do the thing as Joshua Idehen says.

Agree.
It's clearly something you feel passionate about. The reason most of us work is that we can't afford not to so if you can afford to take a break then go for it.

Good luck x

I think you should find a way. I burned out as a mainstream teacher and left my career, then worked for a few years as a barista. I was able to retrain in a completely different field because I had the extra time and more importantly, the headspace and energy to do it.

I can’t tell you how much difference it makes doing work you love. Even the busy weeks are more bearable when you don’t dread going in.

It sounds as if it would be worth the gamble for you - good luck!

Yes, two well-known novelist friends of mine have had most or all of their novels optioned by film or tv, in one case by a very famous actress who’d started a production company and wanted to star in the film adaptation, but the option fees in themselves are negligible, and for one friend, it was only her eighth novel that was finally filmed. For the other, it was her seventh, which was made into a tv series, and that only paid her £70,000 in total. Not nothing, but not riches. She still has a FT job in a university, but took a year’s leave to write with that fee.

I’m finding this thread and the insights into the publishing world fascinating.

@WaryHiker It isn't for everyone, but it's far more doable than most people would have you believe.

From what you posted above, WaryHiker, it sounds like you wrote 20 books in five years. So, one every three months? Or did you have some written already, and you published them all in quick succession?

I've worked with several indie authors who had some success with that method - high quantity, quick turnover - but never that quick. Did you get your manuscripts edited?

Nano isn't a thing any more, it all collapsed amid some scandal that I couldn't be bothered to read about.

But I agree, if you're a writer, a real writer who HAS to write, you will write. Those who are successful are driven to do it; you don't wait to have the time or feel less tired or for the muse to strike (I have to turn out three books a year, and I am, most emphatically, NOT always in the mood). You write because you have to

If you're already doing that, OP, you are half way there. Maybe finish one book and put it out there as a self published author (but beware because the time you need to spend marketing is far more than the time you spend writing). If that book does well then you could think about writing the rest. If it dies, then you know. Or it might do so well it gets picked up by a traditional publisher!

Otherwise, perhaps just think about changing your job and keep the writing for retirement.

I know (slightly) a self-published author who writes a new book every six to eight weeks, adding a new book to an existing series in strict rotation. They are highly efficient, plotty genre novels. She writes 70,000 words in a month with a strict daily word count, and does very little subsequent editing (I mean, just copy edits). They’re not my thing (I write literary fiction) but she makes a good living, and takes marketing and contact with her fans as seriously as the writing.

In this economy? Hell no!

It does sound like you need a change though or to see if you can carve some time to write- is part time or a job change feasible?

This is it - if you adopt that model, you're committed to putting a lot of your time into marketing and promotion. Plus the pressure is on to produce content, whether you want to or not.

It's ironic that people go into the field because they love writing and want to produce quality work ... and then find that the most reliable way to generate income requires you to focus on every aspect other than the actual writing.

It's not quite so dreadful if you are traditionally published as you don't have to put as much time into relentless marketing as you do if you are self published. You still have to market, of course, but you're aware there's a team at your back doing a lot of background stuff that you never usually think of, like BookBub promotions and getting Amazon deals. So you can concentrate on the writing a bit more.

Of course, you don't make as much money, because the publisher takes a slice, but for those writing alongside another job it's often worth it, timewise. Also not all publishers are paying advances now, mine for instance pays royalties monthly on a 90 day lag (as long as the book is selling of course). Disadvantage is no nice big chunk of money upfront, but then you don't need to worry about not earning out (and often getting dropped), and the money starts to come in almost immediately.