Bookworld: A tough gig for writers

Every five years, the Authors Guild does a survey that attempts to do in a scientific fashion what #PublishingPaidMe did in a viral fashion: Expose the current financial state of publishing and specifically how authors are impacted. The results are… disheartening.

Nearly 6,000 authors surveyed revealed that the median gross pre-tax income from book sales alone was $2,000, and when combined with other writing-related income, the median income was $5,000.

For the year, mind you. I’m equally stunned to be well above the median and heartbroken that so many authors are struggling so much. Because this is actually a 9 percent increase since 2018, and a 20-percent increase for full-time authors (part-time authors saw a 4 percent decline).

In case you hadn’t noticed, this puts the majority of authors well below the poverty level, which is why most authors have day jobs. Writing-related income includes teaching, speaking, editing, blogging, journalism and so on. You know, basically everything I do. And people wonder why I always have at least 5–7 jobs…

Most interesting is the analysis of traditionally published vs. self-published income. Traditionally published authors continue to make a lot more than self-published authors even though self-pub writers can keep more of the money their books earn. However, full-time…