Writerland » You Tell Me

Survey Results: How Writers Support Themselves

Meghan Ward — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:00:43 +0000

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the survey. You guys are awesome. Here are the results:

Sixty-five writers took the survey. Of those, 42% are novelists, 18% are nonfiction and/or memoir writers, and the rest are broken down below. 43% of the writers support themselves through non-writing-related jobs (see below for a list of those jobs), and 41% support themselves through a writing-related job like teaching, editing, or writing. Another 32% write freelance articles for newspapers and magazines, 28% are supported by a partner or spouse, 17% make a living freelance editing, and 14% support themselves by selling books (this includes both advances and royalties), and 3% (two people) are independently wealthy.

Sixty-one of the writers surveyed answered the question: “What is your (TOTAL) annual income?”* 23% of those who responded earn an annual income of less than $25,000; 26% earn between $25,000 and $50,000; 21% earn between $50,000 and $75,000 a year; 15% earn between $75,000 and $100,000; and 15% make more than $100,000.

Sixty-three of the writers surveyed answered the question: “On average, how much money did you make from your writing during the past three years?”* 59% of those who responded made an average of less than $10,000 over the past three years from their writing. 14% made between $10,000 and $25,000, and another 14% made between $25,000 and $50,000. Two people made between $50,000 and $75,000; three people made between $75,000 and $100,000; and three people earned more than $100,000 per year, on average, for the past three years.

*A couple of people commented that they had trouble answering the income questions because they may make close to $100,000 one year and almost nothing the next, so they had a difficult time averaging their incomes.

Number of writers who took the survey: 65
41.5% write novels
9.2% write short stories
18.5% percent write nonfiction and/or memoir
4.6% write poetry
18.5% are journalists
7.7% chose OTHER

Those who chose OTHER write:
Magazine/newspaper features, advertising & educational copy, website copy
Graphic novel/memoir
Nonfiction books/memoir AND journalism
Short stories, novels, personal essays, press releases
Essays and light journalism

THOSE WHO WORK IN NON-WRITING-RELATED JOBS:
Healthcare field
Clothing design, retail window displays
A crappy administrative job at a university
Online community management
Illustration and income from a rental unit
Self-employed where writing and creating interest through story is important
Consulting for former employer
School district support
Fellowships
Fact checking, project management
Accounting
I run the PR program for a Real Estate Investment Trust
I am a teacher. I took the last year off teaching in order to write. I saved this money by teaching at the highest paying university in South Korea for several years. My husband and I are also living with my parents right now so that I can write and he can study language.
Administrative work
Edit a website
Full-time job
Part-time HR
Contract interpreting and translating
Teaching
Administrative assistant
Security guard, census taker, dog walker, 401 (k) ‘90s money
Marketing (after writing exclusively for three years)
Savings
Fast food management
Marketing/design
Something having absolutely nothing to do with writing
Quality system manager

So what does it all mean? It means that 87% of the writers surveyed earn less than $50,000 a year from their writing, and 74% earn less than $25,000 a year. If you live in the Bay Area, it’s not easy to survive on less than $50,000 a year. And if you live anywhere else in the U.S., it’s not easy to survive on less than $25,000. In other words, don’t quit your day job. Too late? Well, next week we’ll take a look at different ways writers can support themselves and which are the most viable. Meanwhile, what did you think of the survey results? Surprising? Expected? What other questions would you ask next time?

How To Support Your Writing Career

Meghan Ward — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:00:47 +0000

There is no one way to support yourself while building your writing career. Many people have full-time non-writing-related jobs. Some people teach writing. Some people have spouses who support them. Others freelance write and edit. Still others are lucky enough to make a living selling books. Next week, I will examine different options writers can pursue in order to pay their bills while writing the Great American Novel. This week, I’d like you all to take a survey to let me know how you support your own writing careers. Thank you for taking a minute to click through the responses. Happy Tuesday!

*Don’t forget to participate in the Writerland Pledge Drive. All proceeds go to Free Is A Verb to fight human trafficking. If you need help signing in to Writerland, just watch the instructional video!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.

Equal Parts Criticism and Praise?

Meghan Ward — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 06:23:00 +0000

In the comments section of my post on How to Critique Other Writers’ Work, a debate ensues. When using the sandwich approach (two slices of positive feedback with a glob of criticism in the middle), do the positive and critical parts of your sandwich need to be equal? If a manuscript needs a lot of work, is it still important to give it as much praise as criticism? If a piece is ready to publish, should you still give it as much criticism as praise? If you answer “No,” please explain in comments. Thanks for participating!

You Tell Me

Meghan Ward — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:22:44 +0000

I know I’m not the first blogger to ask this question, but would you still write if you knew you were never going to be published? I find this question impossible to answer because I am DETERMINED to get published, even if it means self-publishing (although, does that count when anyone can self-publish?) I guess the question should be, would you still write if you knew that no publishing house, large or small, was going to publish your work? My answer to that is a resounding YES! Why? Because I love writing and I love reading. When I was in first grade, if you asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said, “a poet.” Ironically, I am a terrible poet and rarely read poetry, but what inspired me in first grade was this poetry book in the school library about a chien and a chat (it was in French). I don’t remember any of the poems, but I grew up to live in France for six years and to go on to tutor French. And to write. If you asked me what else I wanted to be in first grade, it was a teacher. I used to ask my teacher if I could keep all her leftover dittos, and she would let me. I collected them until I had an inch-high stack and then I would invite my friends over after school to play school (fun, huh?). I would always be the teacher, and I would make my friends do dittos, and then I would correct them. And, yes, I plan to teach one of these days. All this to say that writing (and teaching) feels like it’s in my bones. I’ve wanted to do it since I was in first grade, and I still want to do it 34 years later.

What about you?