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Original poster

Salary for unknown writer

36 replies

ShittyFingers · 05/02/2022 08:05

I’m just curious … say you write a book, it gets accepted by a publisher … it’s your first book and nobody knows who you are.

Let’s say it’s a chick lit book.

How much money could you expect to earn from this first book? How does it work?

I’m assuming the pay out isn’t great - but I need motivation

OP posts:
LouisaMayAlcott · 05/02/2022 09:29

If you're looking to write books to make a living from it I'm sorry to say that it only happens to a very few people. Most authors also have a day job. I don't write contemporary fiction but I know other authors who do and some of them earn 1k PA. Obviously some earn a lot more but when you first start out as an unknown it's very hard.

AppropriateAdult · 05/02/2022 21:42

There was a survey a few years ago of writers' income (in the UK), it found the average annual income of full-time writers to be £11,000.

If you're traditionally published (i.e. a publishing house pays for your book to be printed and sold through bookshops and other outlets) then you'll usually be offered an advance, which can be anything from a few hundred pounds to a seven-figure sum (most are on the lower end, obviously). If your book sells well and 'outearns' its advance, you'll then receive royalties on top of that. Many books do not outearn their advance, so the author never sees any royalties. There are more fees then for foreign rights, adaptations etc if that happens.

Leighcloon · 06/02/2022 12:38

For a start, there’s no salary at all. There are advances and royalties for individual books. As pps have said, the vast majority of writers need other sources of income — that £11 k is skewed upwards by some best-selling high earners. (I certainly need a job. I have a .7 university post.)

Even a more successful novelist friend, who is very well-known, and whose last advance was about £200k, has a FT job — she is raising young children, and although that sum was about three years’ salary for the job she was in at the time, there are no guarantees, and in fact the first novel of the two-book deal sold less well than previous ones.

Swear · 09/02/2022 00:31

Have you considered self-publishing? That way, you can cut out the middleman.

Greenmarmalade · 09/02/2022 00:35

Surely no one makes money self-publishing?

Swear · 09/02/2022 08:55

That's not true. Why don't you compare royalty rates?

caulkheaded · 09/02/2022 09:02

@Greenmarmalade

Surely no one makes money self-publishing?
I think it depends on what you’re writing about. I’d imagine self publishing fiction wouldn’t pay but DH and I have both written non-fiction and had it published through amazon - it is DHs main income.
asnippersdream · 09/02/2022 09:05

@Greenmarmalade

Surely no one makes money self-publishing?
The average self-published book sells less than 500 copies. So generally they don't make any money - but there are exceptions!
AngelsWithSilverWings · 09/02/2022 09:11

My DH had a book published ( not self published ) in 2020. Not chick lit and a slightly niche subject matter but I thought I'd let you know how much he made anyway.

Sadly due to Covid all of the promotion he was booked to do had to be cancelled. Also the plan was that the book would be distributed through record shops due to the subject matter but obviously they were all shut due to lockdown so that never happened.

Anyway they sold all of the initial print run on line so did an additional print run which also all sold out.

He made less than £1k but he enjoyed the process and got some lovely reviews in music magazines.

Luckily his day job is rather more lucrative!

themental · 09/02/2022 09:16

I'd imagine self-publishing fiction wouldn't pay

This isn't true either, sorry 🙈

If you remove the very few massive outliers, there will be more full time (six figure) indie authors writing fiction than trad authors.

Amazon gives pretty substantial monthly bonuses to the top 100 indie authors... I've had £20k + months and not even come anywhere close to the cut off. I know people who haven't managed it with $60k months. You wouldn't even know their names if I told you them either, so imagine what the vaguely household names are making.

IMHO if you want the chance of acclaim go with trad, and if you want the chance of money go indie. Best bet is probably to start indie, then branch out into hybrid if the "success" part of being trad pubbed is important to you.

LouisaMayAlcott · 09/02/2022 09:51

There are highly successful indie authors in women's contemporary fiction, the one that immediately comes to mind is Nicola May. But there are a lot who don't make much money at all. A lot of the problem with self published is getting the word out there about your book, marketing is a big thing for any author whether self or trad published, but with a publishers marketing department behind you at least your book is being reviewed in magazines etc. It gets it in front of people who wouldn't normally be aware of you.

HollowTalk · 09/02/2022 09:53

@Greenmarmalade

Surely no one makes money self-publishing?
A friend of mine is making about £1000 per day. She's on here too!
Swear · 09/02/2022 13:44

@AngelsWithSilverWings

My DH had a book published ( not self published ) in 2020. Not chick lit and a slightly niche subject matter but I thought I'd let you know how much he made anyway.

Sadly due to Covid all of the promotion he was booked to do had to be cancelled. Also the plan was that the book would be distributed through record shops due to the subject matter but obviously they were all shut due to lockdown so that never happened.

Anyway they sold all of the initial print run on line so did an additional print run which also all sold out.

He made less than £1k but he enjoyed the process and got some lovely reviews in music magazines.

Luckily his day job is rather more lucrative!

It would be interesting to know how many books were sold? How much did your DH get paid per book sold? Did he have to pay an agent out of what he received?
Greenmarmalade · 09/02/2022 19:07
  • HollowTalk

Greenmarmalade
Surely no one makes money self-publishing?

A friend of mine is making about £1000 per day. She's on here too! *

Wow! I stand happily corrected.

Wreath21 · 09/02/2022 23:08

I have a few mates who make a living self-publishing, but they all say that writing the books is only about half the job - the rest is endless promotion; social media, signing events etc.

gingerhills · 09/02/2022 23:25

@themental

I'd imagine self-publishing fiction wouldn't pay

This isn't true either, sorry 🙈

If you remove the very few massive outliers, there will be more full time (six figure) indie authors writing fiction than trad authors.

Amazon gives pretty substantial monthly bonuses to the top 100 indie authors... I've had £20k + months and not even come anywhere close to the cut off. I know people who haven't managed it with $60k months. You wouldn't even know their names if I told you them either, so imagine what the vaguely household names are making.

IMHO if you want the chance of acclaim go with trad, and if you want the chance of money go indie. Best bet is probably to start indie, then branch out into hybrid if the "success" part of being trad pubbed is important to you.

To do this, would you need to be writing in a specific genre?
gingerhills · 09/02/2022 23:27

@HollowTalk
1k a day? That is outstanding. She must be a genius at the marketing and publicity.

HollowTalk · 10/02/2022 11:01

I think she's found TikTok to be the most effective way of advertising her books.

gingerhills · 10/02/2022 11:09

@HollowTalk

I think she's found TikTok to be the most effective way of advertising her books.
That's interesting
Abraoneglass · 10/02/2022 11:13

I’ve earned £80k for a few years over my 16 years.

This year I will earn just £8k.

A lot depends on genre.

It’s a rollercoaster.

Costacoffeeplease · 10/02/2022 11:22

I’m about to self publish my second book. The first one is selling steadily and only been out a few months. I’m not doing it to make a living bit more as a hobby, but I’m happy with the rate of sales so far

gingerhills · 10/02/2022 13:45

@Abraoneglass

I’ve earned £80k for a few years over my 16 years.

This year I will earn just £8k.

A lot depends on genre.

It’s a rollercoaster.

How do you know you will only earn 8k? Might your latest book not become a runaway best seller as previous ones clearly have?
Abra1d1 · 10/02/2022 14:55

My year-end is at the end of March. My publisher gives me monthly royalties, with statements for the month to come. They have an app which I can use to see how many books I'm selling every hour.

I know roughly how much I will earn from older books with another publisher.

So unless I suddenly sell an amazing number of books in the next seven week, I know down to the last £100 what my earnings will be.

Abraoneglass · 10/02/2022 15:00

That was me!

gingerhills · 10/02/2022 17:14

@Abra1d1

My year-end is at the end of March. My publisher gives me monthly royalties, with statements for the month to come. They have an app which I can use to see how many books I'm selling every hour.

I know roughly how much I will earn from older books with another publisher.

So unless I suddenly sell an amazing number of books in the next seven week, I know down to the last £100 what my earnings will be.

@Abraoneglass - do you mind my asking what you did differently to drop income by 90%? And what you did to raise it to 80k in the first place - did you have several books on the go at once?