Writing Is Hard Work

No, I'm not whining...just stating facts. Writing is hard work, and for most of us, the reward is not financial. This past week, this article showed up on the discussion list of a professional writing group I belong to. Comments have been fast and furious--mostly saying that earning a living as a romance author just ain't happening.

The gist of the whole discussion is whether or not the public should be paying us decently for our art and came from the information garnered in the 2018 Author's Guild's Author Income Survey. The survey showed a 42% decline in author earnings in the last decade. If you don't think that's scary, then you're probably not trying to earn your living as a writer.

Truth is, I know maybe two romance authors in my circle of writer friends who actually make a living wage from their book sales. Nearly to a person, the writers I know are either doing other jobs, too, or have another source of income (husband, partner). I fit both descriptions. I have a spouse who brings income into our  household and I have a pretty much full-time gig as a freelance copy editor. I couldn't make ends meet if I depended on my writing as my sole source of income.

There. I said it. I'm an author who doesn't sell enough books to put food on the table or a roof over my own head. Does that make me less an author than the ones who are selling millions of books, have personal assistants, and go out on book tours across the country? That's a question I often struggle with in my head. Some of the good folks in my writer's group have talked about writing more books faster, getting as many words out into the indie market as you can--that's how you make money. Um...interesting theory because nearly every million-seller author I know produces about one book a year, some one book every two years.

Publishing is tough business--I can speak to the difficulties of trying to make it in publishing because I'm on both sides of the desk--writer and editor. I see what publishers are being offered and what they accept. I also see so many writer friends choosing to go indie right out of the gate because they don't want to go through the process of submitting and being rejected. I think it's true that many publishers are not taking on new writers because the market is so glutted with romance novels--well, all genres of fiction really--that they can't compete. Publishers can't put a book up for 99 cents and hope to make money for themselves, the author, and possibly the author's agent.

And that brings me back to the question of whether or not the public expects us to give away our work. In my opinion, we began a slippery slope with that first 99-cent e-book. We're teaching readers that our stories are worth exactly what they pay for them--and yes, e-books should definitely be less expensive than print books. The work involved in production is less, but for most of us, the work involved in the writing of them is no less at all. So charging $3.99 to $5.99 for e-books seems fair. I'll pay that happily for a new book by a favorite author and even for a book by a new-to-me author if the story intrigues me.

There's so much more to say about this topic, but for now my question to you is this--what will you pay for an e-book?

PS: Please send good energy and love to the citizens of Paris--they are struggling with the devastation of the terrible fire at Notre Dame cathedral. I was there ten years ago and seeing that historic church was one of the most beautiful and humbling parts of being in Paris. My heart goes out to Paris.