Are You Rich?

On almost every school visit I do, I'm asked, "Are you rich?" or "How much money do you make?" The teachers in the room often cringe when kids ask me something like this, because adults usually don't talk about how much money they make with each other, and think it's impolite to ask.

But I always like getting the question, because it means somebody is thinking about what it would mean to have a career as a writer. I went to school to learn how to be a better writer, but nobody in school ever told me how to make a living as a writer. That's something I had to figure out on my own.

To answer the question: no, I am not rich. I'd love to be rich, but that isn't my real goal. My goal is to earn a comfortable living as a writer, one that allows my family and I to have the house we want, the stuff we want, travel the world a bit, and make sure my daughter has everything she needs for a great start in life. That might sound like a lot, but it's really not.

I make as much money now as I did when I was a full-time teacher. Perhaps a little more some years, and a little less some years. It's tricky, making a living as a writer, because you don't get a steady paycheck. In fact, most of your money comes in big lumps at odd times.

I get paid an advance for every book I sell. That's a big chunk of money. On top of that, I can earn royalties--that's a small bit of money for every single copy of the book that sells. But I only get that money after I've "earned out" the advance. It's complicated, and it deserves a blog post of its own, so for right now let me just say that I get paid a chunk of money for a book in advance, and then have the possibility of earning more money off the book sales, if there are a lot of book sales. Advances and royalties are the biggest part of my income.

I make money in other ways too. Sometimes someone wants to publish one of my books in a foreign country, and I get a little money for that. Sometimes someone wants to create an audiobook of one of my books, or thinks one would make an interesting movie, and I get a little money there.

I'm also paid to go and talk about my books, and about the writing life. Schools pay authors money to come visit, and there are a lot of writing workshops looking to hear from people who've written a book and had it published.

So there are a few more ways to make money writing books beyond the money the publisher pays you for the book, and all those things add up to me being able to write and talk about my books full time--which I think is pretty much the greatest job in the world!