Anyone know how much a best-selling author makes?

[bookerzman]

I know It's very hard and rare to make a lot of money from your first book and you need to write because you love to write....

But if your book is interesting and special and many people read him, or in another words - bestseller : it is not possible to make money ?

 

thank you very much.

[ian]

I took this answer from Yahoo answers, so it might not be correct. Also, we need to bear in mind that JK Rowling is an extreme example. But it's an interesting answer (and an interesting question)

 

She got a check for about £1500 for Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone from Bloomsbury publishing company. Bloomsbury also told her to get a good day job because they said she had little chance of making money from writing children's books. She then received a £8000 grant from the Scottish Arts Council so that she could finish writing her series.

 

The following spring, an auction was held in the United States for the rights to publish the novel, and was won by Scholastic Inc., for $105,000. Rowling has said she “nearly died” when she heard the news. This all happened before Chamber of Secrets was published.

 

But before Sorcerer's Stone, she was a single mom on welfare. Talk about rags to riches. She is now the only billionaire who made all of their money from writing books.

[Talisman]

Success stories such as what Ian mentions above are sadly the exception rather than the norm. The overwhelming majority of members of the Society of Authors earned less than £5000 from their writing last year - in fact from the authors that I know (and personal experience) even this is a high figure. I would say that at least 90 percent of authors need a 'proper job' in order to supplement their income (in fact it is reall more a question of their writing supplementing their income).

 

Rags to riches stories do exist, but they are exceptionally rare. I would always advise any would be writer NOT to give up their day (or night) job. I have met a few authors in my time who have these as wel and write during the day. It wouldn't work for me as I need my sleep.

Edited June 6, 2012 by Talisman

[chesilbeach]

From a quick search on the internet, in the UK, the average advance for a first novel is around five thousand pounds (although this may be dropping in the current market situation), and it seems like you're probably unlikely to see any royalties from that first books. I'm no expert, and my knowledge comes from Googling this information, so it could be pretty unreliable, but I don't think you're going to make a living from your first novel unless it is a major hit, and that seems to rely on word of mouth, award nominations and winnings or selection by book clubs, such as Richard & Judy, so the numbers that achieve that I would imagine are very low. I have no experience of this, I'm just speculating and going by the information I've found in a very quick search.

[bookerzman]

I actually agree with everything you say, I know that most of the writers don't get a lot of money for their first book.

But I can't understand why, I mean - if your book is special, different, interesting, and thousands or even millions of people read him, why you can't make a large payment for it?

And I'm not talking about crazy stories like J.K and the other big names, I'm talking about those who sold a lot of copies but they're not so famous or billionaires....

I'll tell you the truth, right now I'm writing a science fiction book with a really sophisticated and interesting concept .

I spend a lot of efforts and hours in a day, and again, I know it's very difficult to succeed, but I really belive the book is awesome, the thinking of publishing this book and not get enough money for it is driving me crazy!

and I won't lie, I love to write, but everytime I see book writers don't get money like they should get it makes me feel sad and angry.

 

sorry for my bad english BTW, I'm not from USA or England :]

[PatrickUK]

J.K. Rowling is our best Billionaire example.

[Talisman]

Why can't you make a load of money from it Bookerzman ? Because books are undervalued, and sold in most instances at discount, or even worse, given away for free. If you totalled up the number of hours it takes to write (not to mention edit, rewrite and proof read) the average book and divided the royalties earned from it by that number of hours, I would wager that you would find in most instances a salary of pennies per hour rather than pounds. Authors are without a doubt one of the lowest paid in the country, if not the world. It's a mugs game, but we do because its part of who we are, and our means of expressing ourselves.

 

I went through that sad and angry phase just as you are in now, as I am sure most authors do, where you have that burning passion to get your message out there and change the world, but being angry doesn't do that and it certainly doesn't change the world either ! If you want to do that, then you have start witihin, in other words, with yourself. Fortunately both writing and publishing are very good places to start, if you can learn to view the challenges as just that rather than obstacles. I remember what someone famous once said - "I am not a failure because I didn't succeed, but a success because I tried". Hold on to that, and you will be fine.

Edited June 7, 2012 by Talisman