What Does It Take to Write Full-Time?

Only about 2-3% of authors make a living as a writer. Want to join that group? Generally, you have four options for doing so:

1. Write at least one best seller—preferably several.

2. Write several books annually—or actually, more like three to five per year. If you can crank out a lot of quality words, you can make a steady income.

3. Continue to write and get lots and lots of books on publishers’ back lists. About half of my writing income I derive from royalties received for a book that’s more than ten years old. It didn’t sell so great its first year, but it has continued to do well. The same is true of my Coffee Cup series. The first four launched at the same time and did all right. But as I have continued to release new books in the series, people who started with the latest one have gone back to check out what’s on the backlist.

4. Have an anchor client or part-time job and freelance or hold full-time employment in a writing/editing job.

Most writers don’t work full-time simply by selling books they’ve authored, and frankly most wouldn’t want to do so. If you want to make it writing full-time as an author, consider that most publishers will desire a new book every six to eight months. It takes me at least nine months to write a novel, and another three months’ minimum to fix the mess I've created.

If you can crank out well-crafted ideas quickly under pressure, you might find yourself in that 2-3%. If not, consider the alternatives for making a living doing what you love.