Reality Check
Every now and then people ask me if I plan to quit my day job as a result of selling my first book. These same people are usually looking for a loan of some sort. Since my first sale was for a novella where I got about $1.32 and a cheese sandwich for the advance, ummm, no. Okay, I did a bit better than that but think “better” in terms of “wow, what an amazing designer watch” versus “wow, what a beautiful beach home you have.” If someone out there is getting enough money to comfortably retire based on one novella, I want to know about it. Fess up. Sure, there a few who get amazing deals out of the box. There are those who hit it big with one book (see: Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil). For the rest of us, it’s a longer haul.
I’m thinking Sylvie Kurtz’s experience is more realistic. In an article in the Boston Globe in January, Kurtz talked about how she started writing in 1992, has published 17 books and has even more under contract. On the issue of how many bonbons she eats each day while lounging around writing, the article says:
Kurtz declined to specify how many books she has sold, but she said that her segment of the publishing industry is a tough one and so far hasn’t provided her with a living. It’s both hard to break into and to remain in, she said, especially with the increased pressure to promote her most recent books while producing each new book in four months.
In other words, no bonbons.
January 14th, 2006 at 9:00 am
That is so depressing! And one of the reasons my website is my ONLY promo. Who has the time or the energy?
January 14th, 2006 at 11:54 am
It’s a common conception, though. When my short story was accepted by Linden Bay for it’s charity anthology — note the word charity, which meant I was getting paid bupkus — I was bouncing around the office about the acceptance and my asked if that meant I was going to quite my job now that I’d “sold.”
She was rather relieved when I pointed out I couldn’t even go to McDonald’s on this one.
The closer I get the more I realize that this is very much a business and something that I’m going to be working hard at for the rest of my life.