Monday, April 11, 2005
Fiction writing poverty
One other danger for current fiction writers is that
publishers and bookstores track their sales much
more closely than in the past.
Let's say you publish your first novel and it
sells 35,000 copies.
Then you publish your second novel and it sells
only 33,000 copies.
Rots of ruck selling your third novel.
Because your second novel sales failed to exceed
your first novel's sales -- your career is now dead
in the water.
I've heard that any number of writers have been
forced to publish their third novels under
pen names, because their real names are now
"red flagged" as "losers."
If a writer is crazy enough to pursue short stories
in a serious way, the situation is even worse.
There is almost NO short fiction market outside of
the fields of science fiction, fantasy and horror.
The few science fiction magazines are still hanging
on, such as FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION.
There are maybe hundreds of privately published
magazines in the SF&F&H field, but only a few pay
anything substantial at all.
They often pay only upon publication, not acceptance.
They are published irregularly and infrequently
to schedules that are downright glacierly -- so
it can take years to see a story in print.
Since there's only a very limited amount of
room, you won't sell more than one short story
at a time to one market, even if you submit
50 great ones.
In short, the writing of short stories is for
only two kinds of writers:
1. Beginners looking to break in. (Having published
a few short stories can help you when submitting
a novel to an agent or book publisher.)
2. Established writers who don't care about the
money but who want to write a short story just because
they want to write it.
Stephen King falls into this category. It makes no
financial difference to him whether a magazine pays
him 1 cent or $10 per word. But he sometimes has
ideas for short stories, so he writes them.
Plus, he lets small magazines publish them as a
favor to the magazine -- as a way to support the
horror field that has made him so much money. Because
any magazine publishing one of his stories is going
to sell very well.
If you need to make a living as a fiction writer,
you must:
1. Write well and prolificly and probably in more
than one field.
Or --
2. Be extremely successful. Stephen King, Tom
Clancy, John Grisham and a handful of other A
List authors make millions.
Most fiction writers are below the poverty level.
publishers and bookstores track their sales much
more closely than in the past.
Let's say you publish your first novel and it
sells 35,000 copies.
Then you publish your second novel and it sells
only 33,000 copies.
Rots of ruck selling your third novel.
Because your second novel sales failed to exceed
your first novel's sales -- your career is now dead
in the water.
I've heard that any number of writers have been
forced to publish their third novels under
pen names, because their real names are now
"red flagged" as "losers."
If a writer is crazy enough to pursue short stories
in a serious way, the situation is even worse.
There is almost NO short fiction market outside of
the fields of science fiction, fantasy and horror.
The few science fiction magazines are still hanging
on, such as FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION.
There are maybe hundreds of privately published
magazines in the SF&F&H field, but only a few pay
anything substantial at all.
They often pay only upon publication, not acceptance.
They are published irregularly and infrequently
to schedules that are downright glacierly -- so
it can take years to see a story in print.
Since there's only a very limited amount of
room, you won't sell more than one short story
at a time to one market, even if you submit
50 great ones.
In short, the writing of short stories is for
only two kinds of writers:
1. Beginners looking to break in. (Having published
a few short stories can help you when submitting
a novel to an agent or book publisher.)
2. Established writers who don't care about the
money but who want to write a short story just because
they want to write it.
Stephen King falls into this category. It makes no
financial difference to him whether a magazine pays
him 1 cent or $10 per word. But he sometimes has
ideas for short stories, so he writes them.
Plus, he lets small magazines publish them as a
favor to the magazine -- as a way to support the
horror field that has made him so much money. Because
any magazine publishing one of his stories is going
to sell very well.
If you need to make a living as a fiction writer,
you must:
1. Write well and prolificly and probably in more
than one field.
Or --
2. Be extremely successful. Stephen King, Tom
Clancy, John Grisham and a handful of other A
List authors make millions.
Most fiction writers are below the poverty level.
