How To Get Money For Writing Books

Most fiction authors struggle to earn income from their writing, allow alone brand a living!

But why?

Are fiction writers doomed to poverty?

Absolutely not.

I've worked with hundreds of fiction authors and taught thousands through our online courses for writers. Through years of experience equally an author, publisher, and book marketing consultant, I've seen firsthand why most fiction writers struggle to ever earn considerable income from their work.

The market place for fiction books is enormous—there is plenty of demand.

Non only is there a ton of demand for fiction from new authors, only y'all can really compete head-to-caput with the big publishers. Since most fiction books are now purchased online and in eBook format, the field has been leveled for self publishers and indie authors.

The truth is, information technology's fifty-fifty easier for fiction authors to earn a full-fourth dimension income from book royalties than for non-fiction authors.

Make Coin Writing Fiction

Here are the biggest lessons I've learned for fiction authors when it comes to earning a serious income.

selling fiction books

Warning: If y'all're merely writing as a hobby and don't plan to e'er earn a living as a writer, don't bother post-obit these tips for fiction writers.

one. Write Daily

Goose egg is more than depressing than meeting an author who has written an unresearched standalone novel and wants to sell it and live off the royalties forever. Your chances of earning a full-time income with a single novel are astronomically small.

Only an writer who'southward written dozens of books—at present that's someone I want to talk to!

Why? Information technology'southward not just because they're more than productive; they're more fun to be around, too.

Anyone can write i book. But honestly, how skilful is a first-time novelist's debut book going to exist?

Probably not all that good, even after working with a developmental editor or two. The craft of writing a great novel is something that takes a lot of intentional exercise and study to master.

Even the greatest writers started out writing poorly. The only way to write atruly nifty volume is to write a lot of books (or do rewriting the same book many, many times with feedback and advice from some great editors and writers).

Invest the fourth dimension in learning how to become a better writer. And realize that practicing writing a lot is the only way you're going to get in that location.

Writing Motivation

In that location is no shortcut to success. Yous have to practice writing obsessively if you want to become a great writer.

For writers who want to earn a serious full-fourth dimension income, I recommend you practice writing a minimum of two hours a solar day.

Past the way, that's 14 hours a week for those of you who are used to a five-day work calendar week. In that location is no 5-24-hour interval piece of work calendar week for a motivated writer.

The listen takes no days off and neither should your writing, if you're committed to your career.

You're not going go earn a steady salary as a novelist, but it'southward crucial that y'all work on your writing consistently if yous want to earn a full-time income as an writer.

If you act similar a salaried writer who has to piece of work every solar day come pelting or shine, you're more than probable to end upwards earning serious royalties.

If you lot need some extra writing motivation, bank check out our 7 tips for staying productive and engaged in your work.

2. Read Daily

People ask me all the time, "How practice I find more fabric to write?"

Read more than.

How can you lot call yourself a serious author if you're not a serious reader?

You have to study those who accept come before y'all, or y'all will find yourself constantly reinventing the wheel, discovering insights on your own that you should have learned years agone by studying and learning how to improve your writing skills.

All slap-up athletes, artists, and entrepreneurs study others. You can't practise great artistic work in isolation. You need to environment yourself with other great writers, and i of the easiest means to exercise that is to just read their piece of work.

If yous written report swell writers, y'all're a lot more likely to acquire the skills and glean the insights that will help your work stand up out.

3. Write Generally Novels (Not Brusk Fiction or Novellas)

Authors with single-title novellas tend to sell very few copies, fifty-fifty with heavy marketing support. For the vast majority of authors, it's just not worth spending money to market a single novella considering your max realistic price signal is $two.99 for a self-published novella, and even so you're still competing with full-length novels from authors with huge backlists at that price point for an ebook.

Most novellas sell for 99 cents, and many are offered for gratis to assistance the writer attract new readers to buy their other books.

It's easier to win the lottery than it is to earn a full-fourth dimension income writing a novella. Although yous can become paid to write short short stories, the large money comes from publishing a novel that readers honey (and especially a series of novels).

The real key for novelists is to have several novels in one series or a similar genre so that readers who love one of your books will buy the remainder.

Consider whatsoever novellas you lot've written or plan to write equally gravy on the side. They're simply not existent money-makers.

If you've never written a story longer than 50,000 words, you ought to make that your goal now. Information technology's hard to do a truly bully story justice with less material, and readers are more probable to buy longer works of fiction.

If you write short books only, attempt writing longer books. Chances are y'all need to practice character development, plotting, and creating a richer story.

One other strategy y'all tin can try if yous're nevertheless exploring your genre and interests is to write several curt stories and see which one sells the best. If you detect readers are loving ane of your brusk stories in particular, so you lot may want to write a full-length novel or series of books based on those characters.

This is a great mode to endeavor different things, experiment, and see what works before you invest the time to write a vii-volume serial in a genre that no 1 buys.

Readers will tell y'all what they desire with their credit cards. If one of your books is selling 10x or 100x more copies than your others books, you should endeavour to detect out why and write more books related to your bestseller.

Don't endeavour to turn your poorest-selling books into your bestsellers. Build on your bestsellers and focus on writing books your readers are willing to pay more than for.

If you simply write long books and have never written a brusque story earlier, attempt writing a short story. Chances are you write as well much description and long-winded prose. Meet if yous can tighten information technology up and write something short however impactful.

4. Write More, Edit Less

If you're spending the vast majority of your writing time making edits, yous're doing information technology wrong. You're probably a perfectionist, and that habit of getting stuck in editing and non producing new content will kill your career. The only way to abound and get better is to constantly produce new material.

Editing is certainly of import, but you have to make sure y'all avoid the fate of authors who work on a single book for a decade with nothing to show for all that fourth dimension and try.

Don't worry near whether your book is practiced or non at outset. Just start writing. In one case y'all take your first draft done, that's when it's time to start editing and revising your work.

After you've gone through plenty self-editing (between five and 75 rounds of your own revisions), you'll desire to ship your book either to beta readers or a professional editor side by side, depending on how you lot want to go about it.

Nosotros take a detailed guide on how to discover a nifty book editor. Nosotros also have some highly trained and experienced editors we can recommend for you based on your detail genre or subgenre.

If you get stuck on a project, start writing a new volume. Enquire for help—seek out other successful writers or editors for feedback and advise.

You'll get amend over time if you just practice. If you don't do, you'll never improve.

Become a Well-Paid Author

If this all makes sense and you lot're looking to publish several total-length novels in a similar niche or genre—and you're looking for a publishing company that understands how to create book marketing campaigns to assist you earn a total-time income equally an author—contact u.s. here.