Fellow Author,
A friend who had gone pretty much AWOL on me.
Usually we would meet up every few weeks, catch up on life, gossip… the usual.
The last time he’s messaged me was almost a year ago...and it was unlike us to go so long without contact so I pinged him a message.
“What’s up bud? You, me, Starbucks time… in an hour?”
“Oh hey...yeah, it’s been ages. See you there”
We meet and get the usual ‘bro-talk’ greetings out the way (“what’s with the hair man, you look like a tall hobbit”)...
We then head over to the barista and I ask for a Venti and turn to my friend, waiting for him to put in his order.
He looks kinda embarrased at the woman behind the counter and mumbles “oh, nothing for me, thanks.”
I’m confused. Coffee was his ‘thing’ – I don’t think I ever saw him drink much else to be honest.
Why didn’t he want one now? I guessed he was cutting back or something
“Why don’t you just get a decaf?”
“Nah, I'm good. Nothing for me”
Something was up. I pushed harder
“Why are you being weird? Are you on some kinda fad diet or something now? Get a juice instead, I won’t judge you” I laughed.
Except he wasn’t laughing. Actually, he was looking really embarrassed and awkward
“I can’t”
There was a pregnant pause as I waited for the reason… something was up. Maybe he’s unwell?
“Are you OK?”
All of a sudden (just like in a movie), he exploded – “NO I’M NOT. LOOK, I DON’T WANT A SODDING COFFEE, I DON’T WANT ANYTHING ALRIGHT. WILL YOU JUST LEAVE IT!?”
I pulled him into one of the booths away from the counter and asked him, “Jeez man, talk to me. What is going on?!”
What he told me next would have left you dumbstruck too
After a deep breath, he started to tell me that over the last year or so, he had been living a nightmare.
For 6 months, he was at home in front of his laptop working like a madman to get his book written.
Cancelling plans on people, declining offers to meet family, practically living on instant coffee and toast.
He wore out the keyboard labels on this laptop trying to get his manuscript complete...
By the 7th month, he had it all edited, proof-read and formatted. It was ready to submit it to publishing houses.
In allt his, he hadn’t been making much for those 7 months except the odd freelancing article job for a few bucks here and there to stay 'afloat'.
What came next was a year of struggle, deflation, stress, panic, and despair as rejection followed rejection.
Networking events were a flop. He even paid an expert to make it into a digital book to 'self'publish' it on Amazon, but no many sales there either.
He very soon turned different man, and not for the better. I barely recognized him.
He had been mostly living off savings and the few jobs he could get as a freelance writer were either low paid or few and far between.
His barista-breakdown made sense now...
His confidence was shattered and he was ready to call it quits - even though writing was his calling.
It was all he ever really wanted to do in life. He just could not – literally – afford to be a writer any longer. He was broke.
Which meant that that day, he also couldn’t even afford a cup of coffee.
Forget minimum wage, his writing efforts were making him...ZERO wage.
And sadly he isn’t alone in this.
According to research conducted by the US Authors’ Guild, the median income of a professional author is a humble $6,080 per year.
Nicola Solomon, Society of Authors’ chief executive, highlights that, “non-fiction and particularly academic writers fare badly in comparison with fiction”.
Worse still, the median income for all published authors based solely on book-related activities sits at just $3,100, with roughly 25% of all authors surveyed earning $0 in book-related income in 2017.
For a standard 35-hour work week, that’s a woeful $1.70 per hour wage!
It’s the equivalent of about a half a Tall Starbucks Frappuccino. Forget buying even a simple coffee, how can that amount even cover basic bills, rent, insurance, food, heating, travel, healthcare, etc?
The harsh truth is that your income will be VERY, VERY limited if all you do is try to sell books
There are 3 devastating hurdles every non-fiction expert author faces sooner or later.
1) Writing a book takes a LOT of time to complete.
Months, even years, of research, writing and proofreading. Weeks and months of editing and improving. Days of formatting to be ready to send to publishing houses to be considered.
That’s all before the months or year-long waiting game begins, when each morning consists of waiting for an email to arrive that says, “we want to make you a formal offer to publish”.
2) Writing a book is an EXPENSIVE endeavour
The cost of a laptop aside, a good proof-reader starts at $30-40 per hour, so proofing a 40,000-word manuscript costs approximately $1,200.
Then there is the cost of printing out your cover letter, synopsis and first few chapters so you can send out your manuscript to the publishing houses (including the postage and large stamped envelopes that need to be included).
Oh, and be sure to multiply that by however many literary agencies you plan to send to. It all adds up before you’ve made a single cent.
If by this point you’ve spent most of your savings on supporting yourself as you write the book, forgetting about the end expenses of having it edited and sent out to publishers...
3) BOOKS DON'T MAKE MONEY
What??? You wonder...then read on...
This inability to earn adequate living has resulted in it taking writers longer to research and write books since they have to do it between other money-earning ventures. It’s a vicious cycle of side job, writing, waiting, freelancing, writing, waiting, and working.
It isn’t the book sales that makes the money… it’s what you do with the book that does.
A book can be a phenomenal gateway to offer your readers a higher-priced (and more lucrative)
online course that delivers advanced content.
As you start to grow a following, you can quickly become known as a ‘go-to expert’ in your field, so that more people start to find out about you organically.
Finally, when you start creating a community for your readers to join and benefit from, which in turn translates into more
online course sales.
Tiz