Traditional and Self-Published Author Incomes - Only 10% of Authors Can Make a Living

Let that sink in for a minute. Only 10% of authors can make a living, that is, earn enough money from their writing to support themselves, pay their bills, and make ends meet. Let's talk about traditional and self-published author incomes.

This is bad news for someone like me, who up until now, has felt like my success has hinged somewhat on meeting financial goals. Perhaps its time for me to review those goals.

Where is the money? Not in my wallet.

The Guardian reports,

Just over 77% of self-published writers make $1000 or less a year.

I fall into that category. Ouch.

Now, you may be thinking ‘that’s self-published. I bet traditionally published authors make a lot more than that.’ I thought so, too. But…

Publishers Weekly shared the results of a 2023 survey commissioned by the Alliance of Independent Authors which showed that,

On average, independent authors earn more than authors published by traditional houses.

A 2018 Author's Guild income survey showed that the median income of a trad-published author was only $6080.

I could get a book deal with a big, fancy publishing house, and financially, it wouldn’t move mountains. I probably still couldn’t afford to make ends meet.

So, what is the median income of a self-published author, then, I hear you ask? The answer is $12,749—over double the amount of the traditionally published.

Okay, so those are 2018 figures. How about now?

A 2024 Author Income Survey reported a,

Mean earning of AU$18,200 which is roughly equivalent to US$12,000 and includes both traditionally and self-published authors.

Yep, still not big bucks.

Why are self-published authors earning more money than trad-published?

SPEED!

Well, besides creative freedom and complete control over every aspect of their books and author career, the biggest advantage that self-published authors have over traditionally published authors, is SPEED.

Traditionally published books take years from conception to release. In contrast, Publishers Weekly tells me that,

Over half of the self-published authors [in the survey] had published more than 10 books, and 20% had published more than 30.

More than 30 books. That’s a lot of books.

Macquarie University’s online publication, The Lighthouse, explains that around 25% of authors report to be full-time writers. This means that around 90% of those full-time writers do not make enough to support themselves.

The image of the struggling creative is not dead.

What does all of this mean?

a) It means that writing is a love job and motivations matter.

Writers should be writing because they love to write and not because they’re hoping to get rich (or even paid tbh).

c) It means that writers need to be able to derive their enjoyment and fulfillment from the love of the process, and not of the outcomes.

b) It means that I need to adjust my measure of success.

A successful author is not necessarily a rich one (although they could be). A successful author is simply, one who writes… then continues to write, forever. An author's job is to produce the words, but they don't really have a whole lot of control over how those words are received and what happens as a result of their output.

This is not what my life looks like

On the flip-side, a financially successful book is not necessarily an indication of a brilliant author (but, it could be).

So I'm probably not going to be able to go out and buy a Lamborghini and a mansion any time soon, but the image of a successful artist is more like me than I thought.

Happy reading (and writing),

Much love,

Marley

P.S. Buy my books