Please everyone have a safe and happy holiday, and think about your New Year's writing resolutions!! Make 2008 the year you achieve your dreams.

Jennifer Ashley

Making a Living as a Writer

I've addressed this a little bit before, but I do get asked quite a lot about how much writers really make and if it's possible to make a living writing. My answer is, yes, it is possible to make a living, but you need to go in with your eyes open and educate yourself about the business.

(I refuse to say "if you can do anything else but write to make a living, do it," because I'm sitting here making a living writing, and I can't say it's a bad life. It's hard, yes. But if it's your dream, who am I to tell you not to do it?)

It's actually pretty easy to figure out how much writers make:

The average sellthrough of a mass market paperback is 50%. So you can calculate about how much an author makes based on the print run.

A midlist author has mass market print runs anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 per book.

A lead or top author can have mm print runs of 100,000 up to a million. This is where the bigger money is made, this is New York Times, book tours, and all the other hoop-la.

You as an author do not choose where you start--the publisher does.

(You do have some control over this--as in, if the publisher offers you a low advance and a midlist slot, you can always say no. If you get no better offers, then you'll be starting as a midlist.)

Trade and hardback print runs are smaller, anywhere from 10,000 in the midlist to 70K for leads. Of course trades and hardbacks are more expensive, so you make more per copy sold, but that's offset by the lower print run. Sellthrough is usually higher, about 70% (at least, that's what the publisher wants to see.)

In trades you make about $1.00 per book sold; hardback $2-$3 per book sold. Mass market (based on 6.99 and 7.99 retail price and 6%-8% royalty) you make about 40-50 cents per copy.

You as an author do not choose whether your book starts as hardback, trade, or mass market. (Your agent can push for what you want, but again, your power is in declining the offer.)

In mass market: A midlist author will make anywhere from $5000 to $40,000 per book (note that's per book, not per year).

A $5000 book is a beginning book that sold about 10,000 mass market copies (based on 8% royalty with the book being $6.99); I'm assuming this author had a 20K print run and sold about half.

The $40,000 mass market book sold about 80,000 copies; and since my sample author is still midlist, I'm pretending her print run was 100K. Her sales probably put her on extended bestseller lists, which might incite the publisher to boost her to a lead position.

A lead author with a print run of 250,000 can make $125K or so for that one book.

A trade book with a print run of 20,000 that sells through 70% (which is 14,000 copies), generates about $14,000 for its author. If the author is lucky, the book's mass market rights might be sold, which could get her another chunk of change.

I don't have a lot of experience in hardback, so I'm not going to speculate on its income. When I do, I'll let you know!

Now let me insert the bad stuff:

If your first book makes $25,000, that doesn't mean you get a $25,000 check dropped in your lap. Even if your advance was $25,000, it will be dribbled to you in several pieces: a. when you sign the contract; b. when you turn in the book and it's accepted by the editor. That means after you do the revisions (if any) she asks for. Then she puts in the request for your payment to her acct. dept.


If you got a $5,000 advance on that book that earned you $25,000 in royalties, you have to wait for your royalty checks to collect the other $20K. You don't get a royalty check until at least six months after the book is published. And you turn in the book anywhere from nine to 18 months before the book is published. And then the publisher holds a "reserve against returns" for a year or so in case they get more returns than they expected. So it might take you three years to collect that entire $25,000.


Oh, and if you make $25,000 in royalties and your advance was $30,000 . . . you don't get any more money. You don't have to give back what you didn't make, but they might cut your next advance or simply "pass" on your next proposal.


All this means that the first few years as a writer will be lean, even if your book is a hit. But what happens after that is what I call a snowball effect. All these bits and chunks of money from signing contracts, turning in books, receiving royalties, signing another contract, selling secondary rights, etc. start to add up.


Also, because you make your money per book, the more books you write, the more money you make. (But always take a realistic view of how many books you can comfortably write a year--sacrificing quality for quantity will hurt you in the long run.)

There are also ways to supplement your writing income:

Secondary rights. If you own your secondary rights (foreign translation; audio; movie) to your published books, your agent can sell these to get you extra money. If you and the publisher are splitting these rights (usually 50/50), then the publisher will be looking to sell secondary rights. That's what they do at all those book fairs in London and Frankfurt and at Book Expo America. As of yesterday, my agent and publisher have sold rights to several of my books to publishers in Germany, Italy, Holland, and Russia. Bookclub rights (Doubleday) is another secondary rights sale that adds to your check.

Writing for more than one publisher. If you can keep to the schedule, consider writing books for more than one publisher. Many of my author friends do this--they might write for Avon and Harlequin; Kensington and Dorchester; Berkley and Pocket, etc.


Be careful--publishers don't want you publishing the same thing for their rivals, so you may be writing two different kinds of books, perhaps under different pseudonyms. This can be fun--I love trying out new genres, and writing for multiple publishers lets me do that. But check the option clause in any and every contract you get, and change it if necessary to let you continue to write for more than one publisher.


Writing for e-publishers. The beautiful thing about e-publishers is they send you checks every month. Depending on the publisher, they might not be big checks, but again, they can add up nicely. At Ellora's Cave, sales average 900 downloads per book in the first 30 days. You can sell more than that--keep in mind that 900 is an average.


At e-publishers, your royalty rate for e-books is 37%-40%. Very short books (12K) make about $1.00 royalty per book. Novel-length (60K and up) make about $2-$3 in royalties per book. Authors who manage to write multiple books for these publishers do well for themselves. Many of them are making that their day job while they try to break in to NY publishers--plus they're busy building a following. I don't write that many stories for e-publishes, but I make a secondary income from them to let me buy groceries while waiting for my NY publishers to send out royalty statements.


As you can see, writing is not the way to instant riches. It's a job in which you have to work your behind off to succeed.

You have to be careful, you have to be smart, you have to go in with blinders removed, you have to acknowledge that you might face disappointment, hurt, anger, and rejection.

It's a hard slog, but if you educate yourself and know what you're getting into, you might just make it.

A Writing Career vs. Getting Published

For my entry this week, pop over to The Bradford Bunch (authors of agent Laura Bradford), where I'm guest blogging, courtesy of author Denise Agnew, on the difference between just getting published versus having a true writing career.

Take care,

Jennifer

Colleen Thompson--Advice from a Rising Rom. Sus. Star

I had the great pleasure to pick up Colleen Thompson's new Romantic Suspense, The Salt Maiden a few days ago. I asked her to be my guest this week, and I was able to ask her about the Romantic Suspense market, agents, and writing in general.

J: Do you have an agent? Why or why not?

Colleen Thompson: I've always worked with an agent and feel it's well worth paying the commission to have someone to run interference. This helps me keep my relationship with my editor about the book and allow the agent to deal with any potentially-contentious matters.

J: Can you talk a little about your road to publication?

Colleen Thompson: I wrote on the side for years while teaching. Only after I decided to give writing a real priority in my life and make an effort to education myself about publishing did I make progress. Both multi-genre and romance writers' groups (RWA) taught me what I needed to know and allowed me the opportunity to gain an agent's attention through entering contests. For me, this opened doors.

J: What challenges did you face once you got there?

Colleen Thompson: I first published in historical romance (under the pseudonym Gwyneth Atlee), but I found history-rich, American-set books were losing favor. In addition, I went lost several editors (three!) in rapid succession. I knew I needed to try something else at a different publishing house to break out of the tough place where I was stuck. As I result, I started over, writing romantic suspense, which I adore, under my real name. I've never been happier.

J: You write terrific romantic suspense. Tell us about the general tone of your books and what you find appealing to write about.

Colleen Thompson: Thanks so much, Jennifer. I love writing about "real people" facing the toughest crises of their lives, characters whose happiness - and very survival - hinges upon learning to accept love and embrace their own potential. My books aren't about superheroes, but flawed individuals doing their best. I enjoy developing their family lives (pets included) and exploring the Texas locales that make them who they are.

J: Can you give any “insight” into the rom. sus. market—what readers seem to like/dislike, or if you think reader tastes area all over the map (and why you think so).

Colleen Thompson: There's a great deal of variety within the subgenre, with readers gravitating toward writers that best share their own tastes. My books are a little more family-oriented and tend to feature regular people pushed to heroic acts by desperate circumstances. I think readers are responding because they're looking for a break from all the independently wealthy, super-secret agent, kick-ass experts and want to go along for the ride with people who are a little more identifiable, a little more like themselves.

J: Anything else you want to add to benefit aspiring authors?

Colleen Thompson: When you're looking to break into a market, ask yourself what's the "something different" you intend to bring to the genre. How will your take be unique and lead readers to seek out more of your books? Though you can't completely ignore market trends, emulating others will only take you so far. You have to figure out your vision and then create a consistently improving, identifiable experience for your readers with every book you add to your body of work.

J: Thanks for taking time to answer my questions. I had planned to save Salt Maiden for an upcoming plane trip, then made the mistake of peeking at the first chapter. I had to rip the book from my hands! It looks like a terrific read, and I'm looking forward to it.

More on Colleen's books can be found at: http://www.colleen-thompson.com/

Also, she keeps an ongoing blog with with author Joni Rodgers with tips and news about writing and the publishing industry at http://www.boxingoctopus.blogspot.com/

Don't Let Anything Stop You

I'm behind on my posts, because of heavy deadlines, but I recalled something last night and thought I'd post it as a motivation here.

Don't Let Anything Stop You

Last night I attended a concert of one of my favorite guitarists. The man onstage was older than me, and started this part of his career (touring and recording CDs) in his late 40s.

I'm betting he ran up against a lot of attitude obsticals when he tried to do it: "You're too old; no one wants that kind of music any more; you won't be able to sell to a major label; no one knows your name."

But now he's quite popular, has a mess of CDs (on major labels that are played on top radios stations nationwide), does two-three tours a year, and seems to be enjoying himself. Why? Because he knew what he wanted to do and did it anyway.

I don't know if this actually happened the way I describe, but I see it all the time with writers.

As a writer you will run up against all kinds of people, often very well-meaning people, who will try to stop you achieving your goals.

These people usually aren't cruel or jealous; often they are acting from the purest motives--they don't want to see you get hurt.

Well, guess what, you're going to hurt. Writing is painful and getting published is painful. There can be a lot of joy in it, too, but it's also going to hurt. No pain, no gain? (And who says working a "real" job won't have its own share of pain?)

On the other hand, some people will be jealous or mean-spirited, and they'll have varied motivations for trying to stop you.

But whatever the reason or emotion behind it, at some point you have to block out the outside voices and say "I'm going to do this anyway."

People doing their best to stop you can include: your mother, your best friend, your husband, your critique partner(s), your readers. Even after you're published, people who try to stop you will include: your agent, your editor, reviewers, readers, booksellers, and other authors.

Most of these people are not trying to stop you on purpose--far from it. But negative signals will be:

That doesn't sell

You can't put that in a: (choose one) romance / mystery / thriller / fantasy / literary novel

It's not realistic to make a living as a writer

The market for that is dead

So and so author is doing fantastic writing X; why aren't you writing it?

Editors don't want that any more

I'm tired of seeing that

When are you going to write a real book?

The above statements could be right, or they could be DEAD WRONG!

(For example, the things people told me "didn't sell" or editors "didn't want" when I started seriously pursuing publication (circa 1999-2000) sell like hotcakes now. What "doesn't sell" is relative.)

And then of course, there are the voices in your own head:

You're not good enough

That author is so much better than you

No one will want to read that

You'll never get published

You'll never make NY Times or USA Today

OK, you made it once, but you'll never make NY Times or USA Today again.

This book is pure crap

We are bombarded with this negativity all the time; it doesn't stop, no matter how high you rise in the business. (I've talked to mega-bestselling authors who feel enormous pressure to keep their sales at a certain level.)

What we have to do is find that place of strength deep inside ourselves (we all have it--some of us bury it deeper than others :-))

We have to hold onto that strength, even in times of stress, exhaustion, rejections, career problems, anger, heartache, despair.

We have to again find the reason that novel or story spoke to us, why those characters cried out for us to write that particular book.

AND WRITE IT ANYWAY!!!!!

The fiery spark that starts the novel is far more powerful than our own negative self talk or the well-meaning negativity from family, friends and writing professionals.

And who the hell knows whether it will sell or not? What editors are tired of seeing and reviewers are tearing apart might be the very thing that readers will get excited about and glom.

You just never know.

So if you find yourself saying to a newbie writer when they excitedly tell you about their idea, "Oh, editors aren't buying that any more." STOP!

It isn't being kind; it isn't helping an author not get hurt or rejected. It's planting seeds of self-doubt and drying up creativity.

Let the writer enjoy the fantastic experience of writing that book. If it truly doesn't catch an editor's attention today, it might tomorrow. Or the writer will learn how to strengthen his writing so he can sell the next one.

And if someone tells you: "That won't sell; you're not very good; that market is dead; no one likes those kinds of books; editors don't want that..."

DON'T LISTEN!

Why You Need an Agent

While I continue to muse on what I learned in the last five years, I'm going to post something else new writers often ask me--"Do I need an agent?"

My loud, clear answer is YES.

Then I usually step back and say "It depends."

If you are small press published or e-published and want to happily stay where you are, then no.

If you want to publish at a NY house and move beyond the bottom rung at said house, then I say again, YES.

I also state clearly why:

The least part of an agent's job is selling your manuscript to a NY house. You actually can sell it yourself (e.g., through a conference contact with an editor, through a contest, through a direct query, through the few houses that still buy from the slush pile).

Why you so very definitely need an agent after that:

1. To keep from getting ripped off. Publishers do not like to give you any more money than they can possibly help. They will try to keep all the rights, give you tiny advances, and tiny royalty percentages. Your contract is a mine field of little tiny print. There are no exceptions out there--all publisher boilerplate contracts are set up to benefit the publisher, not the author (which makes sense--the publisher needs to keep the company afloat). An agent will make sure your contract is fair to you.

2. To get you the best deal, not just a deal. Publishers make standard offers to new authors, usually the lowest amount they can get away with. An agent can talk up that amount to make it more palatable to you while still keeping the publisher happy. He can also negotiate better royalties, bonuses, and other perks that most authors don't even know about.

3. To get you a deal at auction. If you've got an eager offer, your agent can let other editors who are looking at your ms. know, and possibly land you a very nice contract.

4. He talks you up to everyone he sees. Agents are constantly selling you, even when you're contracted and not shopping a specific ms. She waxes enthusiastic on your behalf to other editors, paving the way for when you have something new to sell.

5. She is the "bad cop" between you and the publisher. You want your relationship with your editor to be friendly and happy. The two of you should bubble over with creative energy and enthusiasm about your story and your writing. Getting into a contract or money dispute will ruin that very quickly. I love having an agent who will talk to the accounting and contract departments for me while I talk story with my editor. And when there's a very bad problem, I don't have to talk to the publisher at all. Saves me a fortune in Pepto Bismal.

6. She helps you keep your career on track and avoid mistakes. If your agent doesn't want you to take an offer, listen to him. You might not agree, but there will be a very good reason your agent suggests turning down money (because remember they don't get paid until you do). Don't be too proud to take advice! (Or too gullible to believe everything you're told--strike a balance.)

Now that I've said all that, I want to add a couple of cautions.

1. Don't expect your agent to run your career for you. I have my own ideas about how I want my career to go. I do a ton of market research on my own--I know what houses are publishing what kind of books, and I keep my ear open to what kind of deals the authors are getting. That way when I want to try something new or build on something I've already done, I have an idea where to suggest we go with it. Don't bury your head in the sand just because you have a good agent who takes care of you. Building your career should be something you do together.

2. NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER sign with an agent who charges an up-front fee. They'll say, "It costs a lot to run an agency and photocopy and mail mansucripts. I need $500 from you right away." Tough! An agent makes money from selling you. If they take your $500 right away, why should they bother trying to sell you? They'll just take another $500 from another sucker, and another, and another... IT SHOULD NOT COST YOU MONEY TO SELL YOUR BOOK. The only expenses you should incur as an unpubbed author are your office supplies, postage, writer's groups dues/contests and whatever conferences you decide to attend.

3. Don't be afraid to break up with an agent. If they don't communicate with you for months and months, if they can only get you very poor offers and don't fine-tune the contracts, if they convey that they no longer like your writing and have very little interest in helping you move up--break it off. You will have to approach a new agent with a new project (read your agent contract thoroughly to see how to end it and what rights they/you retain). But if your career is not moving forward, you have to move it forward yourself. It's hard, but it has to be done. Staying with an agent who does nothing for you (or even worse, a fraudulent agent), will stagnate your career. (I will do an entire post on this subject.)

4. And I should add: Read your agent contract thoroughly and make sure you understand it before signing! (She shouldn't have you pay for her weekly hot-oil massage with Raoul to mitigate the stress of working with publishers.)

It is hard to get an agent. It's probably the hardest part (well, except writing a good book--that's pretty hard too). But in the long run, it's worth it.

Workshop Sat. Nov. 3

I will be doing a workshop at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ Sat. Nov. 3, discussing the romance, mystery, rom. sus. and suspense markets with bookseller Barbara Peters. From 9:30 to noon.

Address and directions are on their website. It's a wonderful store.
http://www.poisonedpen.com/

Five years and giving back

I am working on a post about what I've learned during my 5-year career, but it's taking me a while. I've learned a lot! I want to tighten up my thoughts before posting.

Meanwhile, I was reflecting on "giving back" on my other blog, so feel free to read that as a substitute for this week's OnWriting post.

Just Writing

I've been pondering writing posts on getting back to pure creativity, or not worrying about how you plot your books (heavy outlining vs. seat of the pants), but I realized that one of the hardest roadblocks authors face is this one:

Writing pages.

This is what separates the wheat from the chaff, the women from the girls. You can go to all the workshops on plotting you want; read all the books on conflict you can get your hands on; and chart, outline, and plot your book to the smallest minutiae, but eventually one thing has to happen:

You have to write scenes.

For many people, that's enough to send them running back into the world of workshop tapes, meditation exercises, or serious closet cleaning.

I think this is where writer's block (or as I call it "writer's attitude") sets in. The realization that OMG, I actually have to write sentences, and they have to be good AND fill 400 pages.

You're panting heavily just to make it to 15K, and you have 85K more to go.

I've been there on every single book I write.

There are some days I simply can't write sentences. I don't know why, but my brain refuses to put words together that make any sense. On those days, I go back and lightly revise what I have written, brainstorm future books, or clean out my closet, whichever I think will benefit me most.

But because I have deadlines, I don't always have a choice (i.e., I have messy closets). I've devised the folowing methods to get myself to write pages:

1. Get rid of the idea that the pages have to be good. Allow yourself to be bad. You'll have time later to fix the stilted dialog, wooden description, boring introspection.

2. Don't worry about writing the book linearly (page 1 to page 400 in order). If a scene from the climax of the book is burning up your brain, write it. You'll have to write it eventually anyway; it's not wasted effort.

3. No writing is wasted. Even if you trash half of what you write; you might be able to use some of it in another book. Copy and paste it into a "saved" file instead of just erasing it. Also, any writing flexes your writing muscles and keeps your brain in practice.

4. Trick yourself to get words on paper (or computer screen). What works for me is:

• Going to a coffee house or similar place to write for X amount of time. I am not allowed to do anything during that X amount of time but write. No games, no reading the newspaper, no chatting, no Internet. I can't leave until that time is over. (I am allowed to use the bathroom, but only if it's desperate.)
• Writing on a computer that isn't configured for Internet. When I got my last laptop, I deliberately never activated the Internet connections. I love cruising the Net, posting on blogs, chatting on email loops, and other HUGE time wasters! I stymie myself by having to use a different computer for Internet.
• Note: If you're on a budget and can't afford two computers, get an Alpha Smart--a text editor that's lightweight, has a battery that lasts forever, holds a ton of copy, and is easily uploaded to your computer so you can edit it.
• Taking the computer games off the computer. I love that darned Spider game. I rock at the hardest level. I finally had to disable it on my laptop. (It's still on my desktop; I'm not that strong.)
• Rewarding myself for X number of words. I tell myself that I have to sit down and write 1000 words (or to the end of the scene or end of the chapter), and then I can do something for myself. Indulge in my hobby, go out to lunch, write scenes for the story I'd much rather be working on, or play that darned Spider game.

I can get four thousand words a day out of myself using these techniques, and since I write so many books a year, I have to.

Now, happily, I don't always have to trick myself into writing. Often the story and characters take hold and just pour out of my head. I don't want to stop writing (not for dinner, a tv show, chatting on the Internet, calling my friends, spending time with my husband). I love it when the fire is hot!!

But realistically, the fire isn't always hot, and you can waste tons of time waiting for it to burn again. During that time, you aren't getting down the mechanics of the book, the pieces that hold it together when the fire finally returns.

Having to get words on paper, having to fill 400 pages with productive copy is truly what keeps many people with fantastic ideas and giant leaps of creativity from becoming recognized, published, paid authors.

Now that I've indulged myself in writing a blog, time to go do that next 1000 words!

Yes, you can write your own book and get it published

I was cruising the net a couple weeks ago, always alert for writer's tips to pass on. I ran across a site that had a list of tips that were at first pretty good (keep trying, shop for a good agent, etc.)

But then the list suddenly said that you should never send in a query letter that a professional writer hasn't written or edited for you. Huh?

Warming to the theme--the author of this list went on to say that the only authors who succeed are ones who have professional writers, editors, and book doctors help them! Double huh??

This list went so far as to suggest that an author who didn't hire a professional writer/editor was doomed to failure, and that's the way the business worked.

Triple huh???

That's when I realized, of course, that this "tips" list linked to the site of a book doctor. Ok, it was a sales pitch.

But jeeeeeezzzz. This site purported to "help" authors with good advice--I can imagine an aspiring author with a pile of rejections thinking--oh, maybe that's why I'm not published--I didn't spend thousands on a book doctor or ghost writer!

Ahem.

YOU DO NOT NEED A GHOST WRITER OR A BOOK DOCTOR TO GET PUBLISHED.

Hundreds of authors every day send in their query letters and partials and full manuscripts, and get picked. I write for several publishers and am on private email loops for their authors. Brand new and excited authors log in all the time, happy to be there, having sold their books via query letters (that they wrote themselves), or conference meetings, or through an agent.

It happens all the time.

This does not mean I have anything against ghost writers. I have a friend who ghosts and does well with it. Ghost writers are often used for auto-bios ("as told to") books by celebrities or government leaders who have a story to tell but know they can't put sentences together. Ghost writers can fix a manuscript that has come in to a publisher in shoddy condition but it's too late to cancel the book (the ghost writer's fee comes out of the author's royalties; and note, this is not a common occurrence). They can also work on screenplays that need to be rewritten and the original author wasn't contracted to work on the rewrites.

But for the most part, most authors, even the big, big name authors, write their own stuff (a few notable exceptions aside).

I got published by doing the following: Writing a book. Writing a query letter and polishing the heck out of it. Sending out query letters to agents and editors. Sending out partials and full mss when requested. Piling up rejections. Writing second book.

Repeating procedure until one of those mss. got bought. I did this for three years.

I got an agent via a query letter, then sending in a partial, then sending in a requested full. I made my first sale to a publisher who had requested my full manuscript via snail mail. That was in 2002.

I now have, or will have next month, twenty published books in the marketplace. I wrote every word of every dang one of them myself. My editors might have suggested changes on some of them, but I decided whether those changes helped or hurt the book, and made them myself.

I didn't hire anyone to help me (trust me, I got the tendonitis on my own).

Writing is just damn hard work. Many aspiring authors don't want to face that. They want instant success, instant riches, instant fame.

Well, guess what. I guarantee that every author out there you consider successful (bestselling or award winning or whatever), worked their little fannies off to get where they did.

I might seem easy on the outside because you weren't there for the months and months and years and years of stealing moments to finish a scene or polish a chapter, the anguish when it wasn't right, the heartbreak of rejections.

Getting published is the most delayed gratification you'll ever experience.

Your book is a gift you give the world, a piece of yourself. You want it to be the best piece of yourself you can give. Don't rush it.

You just have to keep on going, and believing. You'll get there!

www.jennifersromances.com