Mary Freeman Rosenblum, well published writer of mystery, SF, Fantasy, short stories, nonfiction and any other genre that pays money, does indeed work at home and helps pay her bills by teaching Long Ridge students.

 

 

 

Starting a Fiction Career

Don’t Quit Your Day Job Yet!

By Mary Freeman Rosenblum

 

            We all know where we mean to go – right to the top of the New York Times bestseller list.  And it’s a short step from that first sale to that listing.  Isn’t it?

 

Why Do We Do This?

 

            Let’s talk about motivations for a moment.  It’s really a good place to start.  Why are you writing fiction?  And we’re talking fiction only here, not non-fiction, which involves a very different and much more accessible career path.  Are you writing fiction because you can’t not write it?  The stories come to you, wake you up from a sound sleep, haunt your days?  You’d love to do something else, but you just need to write that story?  You’re fine.  J  You may suffer along the way, but your motivations are the right ones for a fiction career.   You’re stuck.  You can’t do anything else. 

 

            Do you envy Stephen King or Nora Roberts for their income and their fame?  Hey, wouldn’t it be nice to stay at home all day and earn millions?  Look how much Rowling got for her last Harry Potter book!  Well, money is a nice goal, but it’s one that is rarely achieved in the real world of fiction writing.  Yes, King and Roberts and Rowling make millions.  You might do that, too, you’re right.  Why shouldn’t you write the next Harry Potter or be the new Romance or Thriller sensation?  But don’t mortgage your house against that bet.  Look at all the books on the bookstore shelves.  Most of those writers have the same aspirations, most of them make very little money at their craft, and most of them have either a day job or a supportive spouse with health insurance.  If you’re choosing fiction as a lucrative career choice, think again.  You will make much more money and make it more reliably as a plumber, believe me. 

 

            Okay, you’ve decided you’re just not a plumber, you are, by golly, going to write.  Good for you!  Welcome to the club. That makes you a writer right now, even before you’ve made that first wonderful sale.  If you want it that badly, you’ll get there.  All it takes is a lot of stubborn insistence in the face of rejection slips, and a lot of writing, so get that next story in the mail as soon as you finish reading this.  That’s an order.

 

The First Sale:  What Happens Now?

 

            You make that sale.  Yahoo!  You celebrate, you dance around the living room or down the street.  You are published, a real author, and next time someone asks that really annoying question, ‘have you published anything?’ you can say yes! {That right there is worth way more than whatever money you received for this story! }  So what happens now?  Isn’t this the key to the kingdom?  Doesn’t this mean that you’ll now sell every piece you send out?  You can say you’re published after all! 

 

            Yes, that first sale matters.  Will you sell every piece you write?  Not unless you have such a big name that your name alone is worth money, whether you actually write anything readable to go with it or not.  For most of us, we’ll continue to get rejection slips for the rest of our lives…not nearly as often as we got them as beginners, but if you push the envelope, stretch yourself and try new things, those stories won’t necessarily work for the editor you try them with.  In all likelihood, you’ll eventually sell nearly everything you write, but it might not happen at the first offering. 

 

            Right now, you’re full of confidence, you send the next piece out and….it comes back with a rejection.  Maybe even a form rejection with sorry and the editor’s name signed at the bottom.  Oh, no!  This isn’t supposed to happen! And right there, a lot of new writers crash.  A promise has just been broken!  We’re a published author and we got rejected.  That’s not fair!  Well, guess what?  You made up that promise.  The publishing world never offered it to you. 

 

            You have moved up in the publishing world.  You are now a ‘semi pro’.  That ‘semi’ is because you’ve only sold that one story, or maybe two or three, but they’re all to small press or non paying markets.  So you’re certainly above the ‘slush’ but you’re not Stephen King yet.  However, this does mean that the editor will look at your manuscript, rather than a first reader, and you will more often than not get at least a scribble from that editor on your rejection.  Often that editor will tell you specifically what did not work, because editors really want you to get better.  They want your name to grow so that you sell magazines for them and earn their magazines literary awards.  They WANT you to be the next Stephen King.  That’s why they bought that first story from you.  Remember…it only sold copies of the magazine to your mother.  They need you to sell magazines to the public, too.  That editor who bought that first story gave you a start because she thinks you could be the next Stephen King.   If she rejects your next three stories, she’ll probably help you out with a comment or two because she wants something from you – more stories and better stories.  So read the comments, use what works for you, and keep sending them to her, and meanwhile, send the ones she rejected to someone else.  Fiction is a very subjective thing.  What one editor shrugs off, another editor loves. 

 

Short Stories First to Sell Your Novel?

 

            This used to be the way to break into the novel publishing market.  Publish some short stories to establish your name with readers, then push your novel.  It worked when the short story market was huge and most Americans read short stories frequently.  Now, with the very limited short story market that exists, it is not at all a necessary path.  Yes, if you can sell a short story or two first, that does help catch an agent’s or editor’s interest.  But not every writer can do short stories, even if they can write dynamite novels.  So if you’re not selling your short stories and you have a great novel in progress, don’t worry about it.  You can sell that novel just fine, even without any short story publishing credits.  Don’t turn that first short story sale into an obstacle that you simply can’t overcome. 

 

 

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers

 

            So you’ve sold your first novel, you’ve sold your first story.  Can you quit your day job now?  Well, let’s review a few numbers first.  All too often we novice writers only find out how the publishing world works long after we’ve waded into it.  A little understanding ahead of time will help you make sense of events later.  The first thing to do is look at the numbers.  What kind of income do you need to live on?  Let’s look at how a fiction career will pay.  While you can turn out to be one of those rare writers who grab ‘the brass ring’ and end up with a first-novel blockbuster that makes them an overnight millionaire, as I said before, don’t take out a mortgage on that future income! 

 

            Short stories pay runs from nothing to about 10 cents per word on average.  A few top markets pay more, but very few.  (Nonfiction pays MUCH better).  So a 5000 word story sold for 5 cents a word, a pretty good wage by the way, will net you $250.  How many stories will you have to sell in order to make your desired income?  How many fiction markets do you know that pay that well?  Not enough, probably.  Not even should you end up with a story in that magazine every other month.  Now short stories can earn you critical acclaim that will help you sell your novel, they can earn you money from reprint sales and royalties from anthology sales, but that will still add up to perhaps a few thousand dollars over the life of that story at the most…not a lot, income-wise.  

 

            Novels pay more, yes, but not for first time sales, on the average.  While a few authors are lucky enough to bring in a five figure advance on their first novel, that is very rare.  Most first novels in the genre markets (mystery, fantasy, SF, romance, and the like) will bring in $5000 or less as an advance.   Selling to the mainstream or the thriller genres pays better, but the competition is much steeper and the market is much smaller.  Now if your book sells very well and goes into multiple printings (as Harry Potter did, for example), then your royalties will soon pay back your advance and you will begin to earn money on your book beyond your advance. 

 

            But realize that every month dozens of books are published in your genre.  If your book does well, but not outstandingly, you may not make enough to pay back that advance.  No, you don’t have to give any money back, but it does mean that your income from the book is your $3000 or $5000 or whatever you received.  So you won’t make any more money until you sell the next book.  Is that going to be enough to live on?  Of course, you can write for multiple genres and put several books a year onto the shelves and that will significantly up your income.  You can sign multiple book contracts if your fantasy series or mystery series appeals to publisher, but then that publisher may not want to buy another book from you for a year or more, until they see how the sales figures look. 

 

            Ah ….sales figures.  Let’s mention that.  Your book is only valuable in today’s publishing market if it sells and sells well.  There are thousands of hungry authors out there, and in today’s profit-driven publishing business, publishers would rather chance a new author turning into an overnight success like Rowling than wait for an author to build a readership with readers.  Sad, but true.  And it is a reality you need to face so that you’re not blind-sided when your publisher tells you that they won’t be buying your next book because the last two didn’t sell.  This is when it pays to be writing in several genres, if you can do that.   You can also change your name, assume a ‘pen name’ and bring out a book as a new author.  Many publishers will suggest that, since a ‘new author’ generates a certain amount of reader interest.

 

Quit Now or Live With It!

 

            Should you quit now?  Well, if fortune is your big reason for doing this, then maybe you should.  The financial reality of writing fiction is not cheerful!  Go enroll in plumbing school.  (And I’ll hire you when I have the money to do so! J)  But if you can’t NOT write, then this is a bit of foreknowledge that will hopefully open your eyes before you find this out painfully for yourself.  A day job that gives you writing time is not a bad thing.  A supportive spouse with a steady income is wonderful.  Do something nice for this angel every day!  Nonfiction can give you a nice living income, and can make a nice pair with fiction as an income source.  Let the nonfiction pay the bills and write fiction for your creative satisfaction.  J

 

            Many of us do live as writers, working at home.  But we usually diversify, taking writing jobs that ‘pay the bills’ such as nonfiction,  writing in multiple genres, teaching writing, or otherwise finding ways to pay those bills effectively.  You are still a writer, even if you are delivering mail or sacking groceries to pay your health insurance and your rent.  And as your career builds…who knows?  There may come a day when you can quit that day job for good.  It’s a great goal. 

 

            So if you’re one of us who can’t not write, then get busy and send the next story out.  And realize that it’s the writing that matters. Reader satisfaction is your success, and not the money you make.