# Do you make a living as an author?



## mahlaetan (Nov 29, 2015)

I would love to hear the stories of those of you who make enough to write full time.  How did you get started?  What was your break-free moment?  Are you felling satisfied with the way things are going?

This is your time to make all of us excitedly jealous!


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

If I moved out of Chicago/into a cheaper neighborhood, I would be making "a living." No break free moment, just steady growth with a few major set backs along the road. KU 1 cut my income in half; my sell-thru dropped below 10% overnight. A few more releases, some collaborative projects with other authors, and changing my pricing fixed that though.

It took six years if you count the three years I spent writing fanfiction at the beginning.


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## jetman (Oct 3, 2015)

In a word, no. I have to rely on my "real" business to generate the income I need BUT the plan is that at some stage, mainly thanks to information gleaned from these boards, the income I generate from writing will replace the income I otherwise generate. No end date for that but a definite goal and plans in place.


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## joyceharmon (May 21, 2012)

Since I retired from the Navy, I've always had at least a part-time job, because the pension isn't really enough to live in any degree of comfort. A couple years ago, I decided that writing should be that job. It's been a lean couple years, but I think the corner is turned. I already know that I'll make more in 2016 than I did in 2015, and that's just the first couple months.


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## ShadyWolfBoy (Sep 23, 2015)

I do make a living at this.

After the success of Space Carrier Avalon, I turned down a role that I'd been working towards for about five years and went part-time at my work.

After the success of Hand of Mars, I resigned even that and focused my efforts completely on writing.

The key was the realization that between those two books, I'd actually made more from writing than from my full time job.


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## James R Wells (May 21, 2015)

Glynn Stewart said:


> I do make a living at this.
> 
> After the success of Space Carrier Avalon, I turned down a role that I'd been working towards for about five years and went part-time at my work.
> 
> ...


It's great to hear results like this including the ability to do a transition over time. I've often seen Space Carrier Avalon in my also-boughts.

Effective this week, I have moved to 4 days a week at my day job based on encouraging results from my first release. If Volume II allows me to move to 3 days a week I'll be delighted. [Also really lucky to have a flexible work circumstance in IT - I also have turned down increased management responsibilities to keep that flexibility.]


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## Guest (Dec 21, 2015)

Yes. I make a full time living from writing. Book 3 in my main series was the tipping point.


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## Chris Fox (Oct 3, 2014)

My break free date is February 1st, 2016. I made enough in 2015 to survive solely from writing, though my standard of living would have dropped if that's all I'd made. I'm confident I can triple my income in 2017, mostly through a much more aggressive release schedule.

I think the decision about when to go full time is different depending on your standard of living, but here's the advice I offer:

1- Pay off all debt
2- Spend every penny like it's the last you'll ever learn
3- Save up at least a year of expenses before you go full time

Writing income will spike and drop, and having a cushion will take away a lot of financial stress =)


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## mahlaetan (Nov 29, 2015)

Wow!  All of your stories are amazing and very encouraging to others.


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## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

I do, but I live simply. No kids at home, no expensive tastes, no shopping habit. 

It took me over 25 yrs of writing to get here.


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## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Chris Fox said:


> My break free date is February 1st, 2016. I made enough in 2015 to survive solely from writing, though my standard of living would have dropped if that's all I'd made. I'm confident I can triple my income in 2017, mostly through a much more aggressive release schedule.
> 
> I think the decision about when to go full time is different depending on your standard of living, but here's the advice I offer:
> 
> ...


In all honesty, the thing I worry most about is health insurance. I think that alone might keep me from giving up my job. If I did and something were to happen to my spouse, my family would be stuck with whatever I could get through Obamacare -- which would be a darned sight better than nothing, but in no way equivalent to what my workplace offers for free.


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

I make enough to live pretty nicely on as a single guy with no kids.  However, being that I'm not a single guy with no kids, that changes things.  I make enough to live on, and looking to ramp that up in 2016 to the "live nicely *with* the family" level.  

Breakout for me was book 3 of my series, 5th release for me all in all.


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## OEGaudio (Jul 26, 2012)

I do make a living. I went all in 2.5 years ago when I graduated college as I decided to not apply for a single internship or job. The first year and a half was rough...I made between $100 and $400 a month then and lived of credit cards. Now it's fairly smooth sailing, just have to keep writing .


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## steffmetal (May 8, 2014)

I make enough to live on, but I have a really awesome day job I'm not ready to give up just yet. I'm using the extra income to save for a big US-roadtrip, pay down our mortgage, and stash some savings for when I do decide to quit.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

> In all honesty, the thing I worry most about is health insurance. I think that alone might keep me from giving up my job. If I did and something were to happen to my spouse, my family would be stuck with whatever I could get through Obamacare -- which would be a darned sight better than nothing, but in no way equivalent to what my workplace offers for free.


Aww ... Becca! I've heard that Obamacare where you live is more expensive and more restrictive than what we have in Chicago. I'm sorry. Some places let you work part-time and still get insurance for only a slightly higher fee. Maybe at some point that would work out for you?


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## Douglas Milewski (Jul 4, 2014)

Five years since I hit publish and I easily don't make enough to live on. I am your object lesson. Do not imitate me.


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## Tim_A (May 25, 2013)

After 3 years, I haven't even paid back the cost of editing the first book. I could maybe buy a couple of coffees a month. As a publisher I'd make a good pool cleaner (as a writer I am totally awesome, naturally!)


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

This year I made a living from my writing. My tipping point was in March of this year. My House saga, which appeared to be dead in the water, took off after a Bookbub on March 1st. Who knows what 2016 brings?


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

I could live off my writing if I didn't live in one of the most expensive places in the world and we didn't have a family of five adults with three cars. Tell them to move out? They can't. See first sentence. You need close to seven figures to even buy a unit here. Charge rent? Nup. I'm not that kind of parent.

Absolutely no tipping point. Just a steady increase based on income from many sites other than Amazon. I like it like that.


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## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

C. Gockel said:


> Aww ... Becca! I've heard that Obamacare where you live is more expensive and more restrictive than what we have in Chicago. I'm sorry. Some places let you work part-time and still get insurance for only a slightly higher fee. Maybe at some point that would work out for you?


Thanks, C.  I think California's version of Obamacare (Covered California) is actually pretty good. It's just hard to replace zero-deductible, low-co-pay coverage that's almost free. And there's no fighting your insurance company -- for the right to an MRI following a breast cancer diagnosis, for instance (unbelievably, a friend of mine is fighting that fight right now). These are HMOs, so if your doctor says MRI, you go downstairs and get one. My husband and I both have access to that kind of coverage, since we're both state employees. It's hard to give up that kind of safety net.

I suspect I'm unusually cautious on these sorts of issues.


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

Tim_A said:


> After 3 years, I haven't even paid back the cost of editing the first book. I could maybe buy a couple of coffees a month. As a publisher I'd make a good pool cleaner (as a writer I am totally awesome, naturally!)


Don't feel bad. I've been published (trad and indie) since 2005, but it's always had to be a second job (hobby?) because I never earned more than 6K a year (in a good year).

But that said, the last three months have been pretty good, after I got BookBub ad. I'm hoping I can keep that going, but it's a real roller-coaster even between earnings for those three months. Fortunately, I recently retired so this is now supplemental income that comes in very handy. I "could" have lived on what I earned in Oct/Nov/Dec (so far in Dec, anyway) though because it is the equivalent of what I took home when I was working. Although, if I had to also take out for taxes and insurance, it would be tight. Really tight. But what I got in Oct/Nov/Dec essentially doubles what I get each month for retirement, so it's a nice bonus. Until tax time. I expect to pretty much have to give it all to the government at that point, so I'm trying to save it and not spend it.

Anyway, long story short, after 10 years, I'm occasionally earning enough so that if it were my only income, I'd be able to live on it if I stuck to a bare essentials lifestyle. (We do have a bare essentials lifestyle, anyway. I spend less than $200 on clothes for the two of us each year, we have no mortgage, I grow veggies, and we have a catfish pond for fish. We can stretch our money pretty far.)


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## mahlaetan (Nov 29, 2015)

I have heard numbers people talk about BookHub on this site.  I checked it out today and it was in the thousands.  Is that right?


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## ShadyWolfBoy (Sep 23, 2015)

James R Wells said:


> It's great to hear results like this including the ability to do a transition over time. I've often seen Space Carrier Avalon in my also-boughts.
> 
> Effective this week, I have moved to 4 days a week at my day job based on encouraging results from my first release. If Volume II allows me to move to 3 days a week I'll be delighted. [Also really lucky to have a flexible work circumstance in IT - I also have turned down increased management responsibilities to keep that flexibility.]


I found working part-time ended up costing me more energy than it was worth (though that may have been due to my trying to do the same amount of work in 2 days as 5...), but it helped ease the transition over.

Good luck with your phase-over. It's supremely valuable at this stage to have an employer who understands and backs you.


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## CelinaGrace (Nov 20, 2013)

Chris Fox said:


> My break free date is February 1st, 2016. I made enough in 2015 to survive solely from writing, though my standard of living would have dropped if that's all I'd made. I'm confident I can triple my income in 2017, mostly through a much more aggressive release schedule.
> 
> I think the decision about when to go full time is different depending on your standard of living, but here's the advice I offer:
> 
> ...


Chris speaks sense. However, I went full-time in July 2014 with some quite horrific debt and with my earnings being the only income supporting a family of four. I could have ditched my day job about 6 months earlier but because of those aforementioned issues, it wasn't until I was regularly seeing really decent sales that I felt comfortable about chucking my other source of income. But - if you're a risk-taker and are prepared to do what it takes, it's possible!

The turning point for me was setting the first in a series (at that time, of three books) free and getting the best Bookbub I've ever had before or since (125 thousand downloads!). I published the fourth in the series about 2 months after that ad and 4 months later went full time. Never regretted it.

(Caveat: I live in the UK. We don't have to worry about healthcare insurance because we have the NHS. Thank God.)


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

mahlaetan said:


> I have heard numbers people talk about BookHub on this site. I checked it out today and it was in the thousands. Is that right?


It's Book*b*ub, not BookHub. I paid $540 for my last Bookbub promo.

https://www.bookbub.com/partners


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## Bbates024 (Nov 3, 2014)

Last month I made enough to where I could stay at home full time. This month will be a little less. I'm full time right now mostly because I received severance from my work in July. Next year I am going all in to see what I can do it's kind of a make of break year for me. Thank good my wife is amazing and has a wonderful full-time job. If she didn't support this chance I'd be back in the cube by March. She is an amazing woman and I hope to one day make enough where she can retire and take over for me on some of the marketing and social media stuff.

Anyways I live in AZ and the cost of living is fairly low but I own a house and have car payments so I need to make enough to cover that and the 300 electric bills that come with summer. I'm thinking if I keep going at the rate I have been that I will be making what I made at my day job by the end of next year, and enough to live comfortably on before summer.

Guess we will see. I think with enough hard work and a little luck I'll get there.


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## mahlaetan (Nov 29, 2015)

Cherise Kelley said:


> It's Book*b*ub, not BookHub. I paid $540 for my last Bookbub promo.
> 
> https://www.bookbub.com/partners


Did you feel it was worth the money? Did you make your money back?


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

mahlaetan said:


> Did you feel it was worth the money? Did you make your money back?


Yes, I did, but not everyone does. It is a bit of a gamble.


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## LadyG (Sep 3, 2015)

I'm still hoping for that "tipping point." Right now, I don't even make enough to pay the internet bill, much less support myself and my kids with my writing. I just published the third book in my series and ran a bunch of promotions, but . . . well, it'll be a while before I can quit my day job. Or my second job, for that matter.

Still, I *am* living out my dream of writing and publishing, and I'm very grateful for the thirteen people who bought my newest book.  So it's all good.


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## Allyson J. (Nov 26, 2014)

I've been writing novels for almost six years, publishing for one. I quit my day job to focus on my writing in September. It's been hard adjusting to a new schedule, motivating myself, etc. I make enough to live off of, but I have few bills and no children or anything. BookBub (my first one last April) really jumpstarted my career, but it's hard keeping the momentum. I have a main name release ready for February, and a pen name release coming up in March, so hopefully that will help.


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## Tommy Muncie (Dec 8, 2014)

I don't, and I'm nowhere close to it. Would I like to be? Yeah, it would be nice to make more money from writing, which is part of the reason why I carry on doing it. I like the satisfaction of writing the stories more than the money, but if there's potential for them selling then I'm going to try for it, and treat each book like an investment. Part of what keeps me going during bad days at work or overtime I don't really want to do is that at least my books will get the treatment I want them to have if I keep resources coming in.

The strange thing is, I'm not sure I'd want to quit my day jobs even if the writing took off. I find them useful for my stories in unexpected ways. I won't do it right now, but I could write an essay on how they help me get good writing. I think the most important thing is that sometimes they force me to get away from it. (I don't do the kind of work where I can write when the boss isn't looking, none of it involves computers much.)


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## Guest (Dec 21, 2015)

Tim_A

I'm curious about how you expect to pay down your editing cost if your books are free?
What am I missing?


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

No, I make a nice part-time income. I had a great Bookbub, then I didn't try for a Bookbub in two years, and now see that was a mistake. Do all avenues: ebooks, paperbacks, direct sales, audio... some months one does well, while the others sag.


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## scifi365 (Sep 12, 2014)

The 'Do you make a living' question is a weird one, speaking as someone who is not an author.

I think it's a question that where other data ('where do you live', 'what's the cost of living,' 'do you have children', 'just how much did your super-rich grandad leave you') are all more important than raw numbers.

For example, there's one author on this thread whom I know lives in a ridiculously expensive part of a ridiculously expensive country. He/she would need to earn the kind of money that would make another author - one in Bulgaria, for example - rich beyond their wildest dreams. 

So: you're kinda asking the wrong question. Ask yourself this: how many books per month (and at what average price) do I need to sell in order to get the same/better income I've got now. If you hit those numbers six months in a row - one after each other - then you're a professional author (regardless of whether you quit the day job.)


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## SteveHarrison (Feb 1, 2015)

I'm nowhere close to making a living as a writer, but after my next novel... who knows?


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## Chinese Writer (Mar 25, 2014)

I'm ending this year in the red. Last year I had enough profits left over to buy a new laptop. I'm hoping next year would finally be the year it that I can pay a utility bill or two with my writing money.  and


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## Tim_A (May 25, 2013)

Okey Dokey said:


> Tim_A
> 
> I'm curious about how you expect to pay down your editing cost if your books are free?
> What am I missing?


Perhaps you misread the Amazon book page? Or maybe you just saw the KU Borrow button? Dunno. My books are all priced between $0.99 and $4.99. The only one that's free (apart from an occasional promotion) is the one you get for joining my mailing list. One book was on promo last week for 5 days, but that's the only time it's ever been free (and that lost me $50 on the advertising!)


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## Overrated (Mar 20, 2015)

Not yet. But I will. I'm starting to see the results of the choices I've made this year. Not buying the Rover, or anything, but enough that I can fund a number of my expenses from sales. 

Even though I see this as the first year of struggle of a SBO, I've never been happier. I love writing, I love managing my writing as a business, and I know I am in the right place. Will it take some time?

Probably. Since I was fortunate that my husband suggested I stop working outside the home at the end of last year, it makes sense to use the time to create another business.

Besides, if I didn't, I might fall into a crack in the couch with only my bonbon-clutching hand keeping me from sinking away entirely. 

So. Not yet. But it will happen.


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## Erratic (May 17, 2014)

> Do you make a living as an author?


Maybe. We'll see.

This month and last month the answer has been yes, but barely, and I don't take risks with my family. My cost of living is remarkably low thanks to the room I'm renting, and I'm currently making more on the books than I am at my job. I could technically leave any time. But there's expensive things I want to buy first. I don't have a car, and my laptop is a $300 cheapie I bought two years ago. I'm salivating at the thought of finally getting money to spend on things I want instead of just the things I absolutely need. So I'm working and making a shopping list right now, but if the income becomes, oh, double what I make, I'll put in my two weeks.

The possibility of quitting soon is very special, and I'm just enjoying every passing week for now. (And counting the days to payday!)


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

> So: you're kinda asking the wrong question. Ask yourself this: how many books per month (and at what average price) do I need to sell in order to get the same/better income I've got now. If you hit those numbers six months in a row - one after each other - then you're a professional author (regardless of whether you quit the day job.)


This is a good point.


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## Abderian (Apr 5, 2012)

I'm still at the stage when I'm ecstatic that I sold seven books in one day. SEVEN BOOKS.


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## Crystal_ (Aug 13, 2014)

Don't underestimate got musicians. They're not as popular as tortured billionaires but they do pretty well. My two books about hot musicians getting it on (pubbed in Oct and Nov) have made 17k so far (estimate about 1.5k of expenses between the two). Yay!

I've been writing novels for about three years and publishing for a year and a half. before that, u wrote screenplays for about four years. There was some overlap of screenplays and novels.

I have seven novels out (one is the omnibus of a serial). My first three books/first series was a dud and is somewhere around breaking even. My fourth book (the four part serial) was the tipping point. I got some great visibility through a multi-author box set, ran an ad campaign, and bam. I went from making $100/month to $800 to consistently four and sometimes five figures. An overnight success after five years of hard work. Give or take.

I gave myself 2015 to see if I could really make it work as an author. The biggest difference was writing to market and really diving in headfirst with marketing. I love what I write but I  careful to make sure I hit enough tropes.

I support myself. My husband has a regular, well paying job that provides consistency and health insurance, so that makes it easier. We live in a major city (we moved to Portland in July actually think) but we neither have not want kids. He really wants to buy a house (the market here is insane!), but I'm not as confident about my ability to make the mortgage for years to come.


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## JV (Nov 12, 2013)

I guess I've written full time for awhile. I did freelance work for a long time. Then I was a film critic, sort of a dream job. I spent most of my time at the theater, did a few red carpet events, etc. I got my first contract with a smaller press in 2013 and have been with them ever since. I write in a popular genre, but I'm looking to break into literary fiction in the next year or so. My wife also has a great job at a great hospital, so with our combined income things are good. Thankfully she loves her job, so she doesn't mind that I'm at home all day making up stories. 

Part of me misses writing film critique; seeing all the top movies early without the public bothering me was paradise, and I got to meet the Hunger Games cast and Schwarzenegger (the hunger games cast signed a poster for me and, like an idiot, I sold it for a hundred bucks...still kicking myself).


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## kathrynoh (Oct 17, 2012)

I stopped working at the beginning of 2014 because I had enough savings to concentrate on writing for a while. I had planned to take 6 months off work then get back into the job market but at the end of that time, I was making enough money writing to not need to. 

And yes, I write about "fluff about hot musicians getting it on". If I had to write business copy, I'd be bored shitless.


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## Andrei Cherascu (Sep 17, 2014)

scifi365 said:


> The 'Do you make a living' question is a weird one, speaking as someone who is not an author.
> 
> I think it's a question that where other data ('where do you live', 'what's the cost of living,' 'do you have children', 'just how much did your super-rich grandad leave you') are all more important than raw numbers.
> 
> ...


I'll second what Mark said. I live in Romania, so if I make 500$/month selling books I can live off of that income rather comfortably (it would be roughly what I've earned for about a year and a half of my two and a half years in IT support). It all depends. If I ever end up making 1000$/month consistently I will be earning more than most of my acquaintances and wouldn't really need to make any more than that to have a comfortable lifestyle and be able invest in covers/promos and editing. Location location location!


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## Scott Bartlett (Apr 1, 2012)

I'm fortunate to have been writing full-time for 2.5 years. It's something I worked toward for a long time, with the idea that being able to focus on the business side around the clock would result in accelerated growth (something that finally seems to be happening, as I start to figure out online marketing at last).

Relevant points: I'm unmarried with no children, frugal, and my girlfriend is very supportive/accommodating.


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## mahlaetan (Nov 29, 2015)

Andrei Cherascu said:


> I'll second what Mark said. I live in Romania, so if I make 500$/month selling books I can live off of that income rather comfortably (it would be roughly what I've earned for about a year and a half of my two and a half years in IT support). It all depends. If I ever end up making 1000$/month consistently I will be earning more than most of my acquaintances and wouldn't really need to make any more than that to have a comfortable lifestyle and be able invest in covers/promos and editing. Location location location!


Yes. I guess that really will make a difference. I live in Portland and the living is nuts. I laughed at a new apartment complex that rents a 150 sq. ft apartment for $850! What? We have often thought about moving to a different place but my husband has a good job here and he would not necessarily have it somewhere else.


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## Kristen Painter (Apr 21, 2010)

I've been trad pubbed since 2009, self-pubbed since 2010. I did fairly well in trad, but the money wasn't enough to support me, my DH and our six cats. Only when I left trad and went full indie with the launch of my PNR series in June 2015 did I start making the kind of money we could live on. Now we've reached the point that he's quitting his big time corporate job this month and I'm taking on the bills. (The bulk of them, he's retired military so we have that income as well.)

Life is good. I work very hard, but I love what I do and I'm truly happy.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

This is REALLY long, skip to the end if you like. Wall of text incoming, but the short answer is YES.  

My mum died of cancer the year I self-published my first book (in 2001) using Lightning Source. I realise now that I used writing as a way to hide from what was happening. Back then self-pub was shameful. I just sent out various rejection requests, and then when I got them I said thanks and self-pubbed on the quiet. I told no one, and sold nothing. Ebooks weren't yet a big thing, but they were around. Various types of readers were beginning to get noticed, but LS offered its own solution called Glass Books. Those were basically PDF in a fancy-skinned Adobe Reader. It didn't look like Adobe, but that's what it was beneath the bonnet.

I wrote four books in that series out of a planned five. All paperback, all fantasy, all through LS, none sold above a few dozen copies. I lost all the money I spent on art and covers etc. I didn't care. Around 2005 I gave up on my epic fantasy series and wrote my first shifter story. That was because I loved things like Anita Blake, but wanted the wolves to have some of the limelight. That also sold really well. I must have sold maybe ten copies?

Computer gaming got hold of me and I gave up writing completely. I was SERIOUSLY addicted to things like World of Warcraft, Warhammer and other MMOrpgs. My best friend from college tried to tell me. I didn't listen. We stayed friends but drifted further apart. Luckily he never stopped dropping by to talk. He told me about this thing called Kindle. Apparently it was something Amazon was doing in deepest darkest America (yeah I know, the colonies!!) it was 2011.

I didn't know that Kindle was already big in the US. I figured out how to make my old stories into kindle and put them in Select. I made $184 in the last six months of that year. That's when I thought I’d try the permafree thing everyone said was the panacea to all woes. Books went live to Nook, and Kobo. It worked. WHOOOOO! I gave away a lot of books. I said screw gaming, let's get serious and give writing another go. I wrote some science fiction, and another Shifter story.

Around the middle of 2012 I was told my company was closing down, but I wouldn't be on the scrapheap until mid-2013. Did I want to apply for one of a few places available at another facility? I looked at my catalogue of books and my lifestyle. I decided to take a chance, and wrote book 4 of my science fiction book as fast as I could. I needed it to hit big to survive going full time. I released it December 2012 and it sold in HUGE numbers. Praying hard, I gave ALL of the money it made over to creating audio books. If they sold okay, I’d survive. If they didn’t, there was always welfare while I looked for a job.

Audio hit big straight away and paid my costs back in 90days. I was in profit and sitting pretty until KU 1.0 halved my income just a few months later. Gone. Just gone. All told, I only made $44,000 in 2013. I was selling in Kindle, Audible, Nook, Kobo, Apple, and Google by this time, but the income wasn't near enough to live on in the UK. I had my severance money. I paid off my mortgage and downsized my life. I got it down enough to live on a third of what it took before.

More books, more audio, Facebook ads, Bookbub. I made $112,000 in 2014. That was more than double my old income and I was still living on a third my old expenses. I was rich! I could buy stuff... except I didn't have any needs. I was alone. I worked all day every day and talked to myself. I saw no one except the post man. Then KU 2.0 hit and killed all my audio sales... AGAIN! Amazon sales halved overnight, and Audible sales died completely.

I panicked, bought Mark Dawson's FB ads course, created audio boxed sets of all my series and used Facebook ads to push them.1 out of 3 went ballistic, selling as high as 67 per day. Months later it calms down to 30-50 a day but no sign of flagging. Amazon is only 49% of my income, with Audible at 22% and rising. THAT’s where I like it. I feel safe. I pull my smaller series into KU and they do okay, but something strange happens in the UK and suddenly Amazon income doubles in that store. Due to higher visibility from KU borrows.

And then I come here and write all this. It’s 22nd December 2015


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## belindaf (Jan 27, 2011)

I write full-time but I don't make a living at it (even after an APub contract and a film option). I'm fortunate to be at a point in my life that doesn't matter. My husband supports us and our kids are grown. I left a career in medical billing, coding, and education after fifteen years to take care of my grandfather who was on Hospice after two years of chemotherapy and treatments for mesothelioma. I quit work to take care of him, but we adjusted financially during that time enough that I didn't go back. One day I hope to have a breakout success that allows me to give back to my husband for all he's done for us.


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## Chris Fox (Oct 3, 2014)

Mark, I love your story. You're one of the people I followed most closely when I was getting into this. You proved to me that I could write what I love and make a living doing it, and you've adapted to every curve ball the market has thrown.

In a year I'm hoping to have a similar sizes catalog, and I'm about to launch my first boxed set. Here's to hope it takes off like yours!

As an aside I also get the MMO addiction thing, and I know other authors who post here do as well. They make it easy to hide from the world, and the communities they form give us somewhere to belong. I'm so glad I broke free of that life.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Chris Fox said:


> Mark, I love your story. You're one of the people I followed most closely when I was getting into this. You proved to me that I could write what I love and make a living doing it, and you've adapted to every curve ball the market has thrown.
> 
> In a year I'm hoping to have a similar sizes catalog, and I'm about to launch my first boxed set. Here's to hope it takes off like yours!
> 
> As an aside I also get the MMO addiction thing, and I know other authors who post here do as well. They make it easy to hide from the world, and the communities they form give us somewhere to belong. I'm so glad I broke free of that life.


If I learned one thing... okay three things.

[list type=decimal]
[*]Never give up. Just keep writing.
[*]Never TRUST the status quo 
[*]NEVER TRUST the status quo... I'm watching you Amazon and Audible 
[/list]


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## Matthew Stott (Oct 22, 2014)

I do not. My goal for Dec 2016 is for that months book earnings to match that months day job payslip. So I've got a year to make that happen, and several new series launching to help.


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## LovelynBettison (Aug 12, 2012)

I don't earn enough to support myself right now, but that will be changing. I'm sure of it. I wrote two novels ages ago and self published them. I'm bad with dates so I don't know when exactly and right now I don't feel like checking. I published them ages ago and I never really promoted them. I didn't know how and I was in the mind space at the time where I thought that I was a writer not a marketer.  What a waste.

Years passed and my books sat on Amazon doing nothing. I always wanted to be a writer. Ever since I was a kid that's all I wanted and the idea of not really pursuing it really started nagging me. Maybe it was because my father died and I realized that someday might never come and time is limited.

Anyway, I'm stepping up my game and putting everything I have into pursuing writing. I have a novella in with my editor right now. I'm working on the first book in a series. I'm writing seriously everyday. No messing around this time. I did a successful promo with my perma free novel and got it to number 1 in my category and a few weeks ago. That really opened my eyes to what is possible. Reading these boards is teaching tons.

Anyway, to answer the OP's original questions. Not yet.


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## mrforbes (Feb 16, 2013)

I earned almost 2x my FT salary as an author this year. I got laid off from that job a couple of months ago, and I realized pretty quickly that I need the variety in my life. 
I went back to work. 
So, I could, but I don't want to.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

Nope - not yet. I still have a day job as a cubicle dust bunny. 

October and November were the first two months in about three or four years of indie publishing when I finally made enough sales to earn triple digits. I'm talking about $125 in October and about $150 in November. I'm creeping towards the $50.00 mark in December - so I'm not consist by any means. Still - I've averaged a hundred dollars every thirty days over the last 90 days. It still sucks, paywise - and is nowhere near making a living - but I can finally see some real progress.

I'm hoping to hit the $200.00 a month by the summer of 2016 - if I can just work a little harder and a whole lot smarter. By the end of the 2016 I see myself earning up to $300.00 a month. I'm concentrating on writing and paying down my debts right now. I figure if I can goose the writing income up enough while simultaneously stomping down the debt-load I may yet get to the point where I can call what I do a full-time job. I am AWFULLY tired of cubicle work.

Baby steps, folks. Baby steps.

I envy you folks with the luck, skill, talent and drive to hit the four digit figures in a month. There's no other word for it but envy. You've worked hard and earned it. Good on you.


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## Richard Tongue (Jul 19, 2012)

To coin a phrase, the short answer is yes. Yet my tale is as much of a cautionary one as an example, and I wouldn’t actually recommend that anyone followed it. Right out of university, I got a job working in an office (by accident, but that’s another story) working nights as a writer/editor in press analysis. By any rational standards, I did pretty well; promoted twice, running larger and more critical teams, but when I reached my thirtieth birthday, I looked around and realized that I was going to be stuck there for the rest of my life if I didn’t do something about it. If this was a book, I’d have handed in my notice that night, but it took me six months to nerve myself to do it.

I already knew that I wanted to be a writer; I guess I’d known that since I was a teenager, when I sent my first laughable attempts to Interzone. (Though ironically, I’m recycling bits of a character from that first story in a book soon.) When I was in university, I ran a fanzine called OD&DITIES, and during my late twenties I wrote four short books, all published on the Kindle, none of which did anything. I knew that I was capable of sitting down and writing a novel, but I didn’t know if anyone would want to read it. By the time I left my job, I had paid off my debts, and had savings for a laughably short amount of time, in retrospect.

I spent three months working on that first book. To be fair, I’d already been working on it for eighteen months, and there were setting elements I’d been planning for twenty years, so I wasn’t totally unprepared, but looking back, what I did was totally crazy. Nevertheless, I pressed ahead, and a couple of days after my 31st birthday, I finished ‘Battlecruiser Alamo: Price of Admiralty’. Watching my savings dwindle, I somehow managed to resist hitting the button right away, and wrote the second one first, ‘Fermi’s War’. 

Then I hit the button. And, amazingly, it started to sell. A trickle at first, but after a couple of weeks, it turned into a torrent. I made more in that first month than I did in a month at the office, and that’s something I still can’t believe to this day. The next book continued the trend, as did the third. At the low point - I had low-two-figures in my bank account, a hair before the first royalty check kicked in. It was then I made a huge mistake; I took a break. Not intentionally, but I started to choke, and writing that fourth book was a nightmare, one that I hope never to repeat again. I watched the sales start to slide, all the uncertainties came back, but when I hit the button on the fourth book, it started to rise again. Since then, it has never been more than two months between releases.

That was two years ago. To put it another way, I finished work on the sixteenth work in the Battlecruiser Alamo series, the seventeenth book in the setting, today. With a publishing date of right at the start of January. I’ll be launching a second series in March, with a little luck. Under no circumstances would I advocate anyone taking the risk I did; I knew that I needed to cut the rope if I was going to fly, but I could so easily have fallen. I’m well aware that I still could, but for the moment, I’m trying to enjoy the ride. 

If you want to take something from this, I’ll say that there is no substitute for persistence. Keep at it, keep pushing, keep writing. No matter what changes on Amazon, how the market evolves and adapts, how things change in the coming years, the one thing that I do know is that it is very difficult to go wrong if you keep on writing, if you build your backlist. Watch the market, but don’t necessarily follow the trend - do what works for you. (And have a mailing list, absolutely! Best promotional tool you will ever get.) Just keep going forward.


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## belindaf (Jan 27, 2011)

Steve Vernon said:


> Nope - not yet. I still have a day job as a cubicle dust bunny.
> 
> October and November were the first two months in about three or four years of indie publishing when I finally made enough sales to earn triple digits. I'm talking about $125 in October and about $150 in November. I'm creeping towards the $50.00 mark in December - so I'm not consist by any means. Still - I've averaged a hundred dollars every thirty days over the last 90 days. It still sucks, paywise - and is nowhere near making a living - but I can finally see some real progress.
> 
> ...


Steve,

I'm right there with you. I don't know how things got so off track but since KU my monthly earnings went from $700-$800/mo ($1200 being my highest) to consistently $60-$100. It sucks, and I'm powerless to fix it it seems other than to keep writing. I sold my bestselling title, FATAL REACTION, toAPub and hoped that would revitalize earnings. I just released the sequel and am getting back to my horror roots, which is where most of my fans are. I think I made a crazy decision to try to write mystery/thriller AND horror because it's going to take me that much longer to brand myself. That being said, a hit is a hit regardless of genre. I keep waiting for my big one and writing, writing, writing because if I stop, I think I'd go crazy.


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## Talbot (Jul 14, 2015)

_Do you make a living as an author?_

Noooo. But to my great shock I've finished two novels this year! I'm on my way thanks to the wonders of outlining. A profit in 2016 is debatable, though, so I won't be giving up my part-time (not by choice) office drone job yet.


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

I have since the start. I think it was subject matter/cover/titles/blurbs, publishing 3 books at once to start with, Select, and a healthy dose of luck/timing. Eventually, audiobooks, both on my own and with other publishers, German translations (through Crossing so far, but I'm doing two books of my own this year), and a couple of Amazon Publishing contracts have helped. I've been doing this a little over 3 years and writing fiction for 4.

If anybody wants to read my "How I Did It" story from the first couple years, it's here. I won't repeat it as I've shared before here, but if others are reading for inspiration and haven't seen it and it's helpful, there you go.

http://www.rosalindjames.com/what-worked-for-me/

Here's a post I did on writing blurbs that some people have found helpful (I know that Libbie Hawker has a good book on this also, but if you write romance, this may be some quick & dirty help):

http://www.rosalindjames.com/how-to-write-a-romance-blurb/

From what I can tell, there are many different roads to success in this business. The right way to do it (writing, publishing, whatever) is the way that works for you. I've made tons of mistakes and continue to make them, but none of them has spelled the end of my career.

Good luck to all.


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## J.A. Cipriano (May 27, 2014)

Andrei Cherascu said:


> I'll second what Mark said. I live in Romania, so if I make 500$/month selling books I can live off of that income rather comfortably (it would be roughly what I've earned for about a year and a half of my two and a half years in IT support). It all depends. If I ever end up making 1000$/month consistently I will be earning more than most of my acquaintances and wouldn't really need to make any more than that to have a comfortable lifestyle and be able invest in covers/promos and editing. Location location location!


The sad thing is, I make about $1k a month pretty consistently and it would be nowhere near what I need to survive in Sunny California. Hell, it barely pays for my kid's daycare. (which is awesome, I'm not complaining)

I broke $1k a month for the first time the month I released my 8th novel, but that book had nothing to do with my "success." Now that I have 14 novels out, I haven't seen a significant increase in money, even with two main series releases and finishing both other trilogies. It is a little disheartening, but at the same time I made exactly $900 from Sept 2014 to June 1st 2014. I make more then that every month. It's a blessing, but still nowhere what I'd need to live on.

I'd also like to echo the whole online gaming thing. I lost so much time to Wow (and Lineage) I'll never get back. Sigh.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

Not at all. But I also haven't published anything in the last few months either. I have not had a sale or borrow since September. I took down a few of my short stories and small collections. None of them sold. The ones that did sell are still up. Hopefully I can publish enough in 2016 to make a difference; however I think going under a pen name and another genre is what I need.


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## TimWLong (Dec 3, 2013)

I've been a full-time writer since October of this year and it's been very rewarding. This month has sucked for sales but I'll figure it out.

Anyway I wanted to mention this about health insurance. I used to have it through my company and they had a big deductible. An office visit got billed at $135 for stuff like check up on meds. The insurance company would cover a pittance of that and then let me know I owed $120 or so.

So I went to the doctor last month and asked how much an office visit would cost if I paid out of pocket. They brought out a handy paper and showed me. It was $85. I about dropped a WTF on the very nice receptionist. Paid my $85, got my blood pressure meds reupped for a year, and went home. Two of my meds were generic and one of those cost less than a co-pay. I swear I am not making this up. Used to pay a $10 copay. It was $4 paying in cash.


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## Andrei Cherascu (Sep 17, 2014)

J.A. Cipriano said:


> The sad thing is, I make about $1k a month pretty consistently and it would be nowhere near what I need to survive in Sunny California. Hell, it barely pays for my kid's daycare. (which is awesome, I'm not complaining)
> 
> I broke $1k a month for the first time the month I released my 8th novel, but that book had nothing to do with my "success." Now that I have 14 novels out, I haven't seen a significant increase in money, even with two main series releases and finishing both other trilogies. It is a little disheartening, but at the same time I made exactly $900 from Sept 2014 to June 1st 2014. I make more then that every month. It's a blessing, but still nowhere what I'd need to live on.
> 
> I'd also like to echo the whole online gaming thing. I lost so much time to Wow (and Lineage) I'll never get back. Sigh.


J.A. - Romania's poor economy is actually the main reason I'm even able to do this full-time, even though I haven't earned much from writing yet. Three years ago, I quit my job in IT support to dedicate all my time and energy to writing and publishing. Between my wife's salary, the money we set aside from my IT days and the low cost of living we are able to support ourselves just fine. I had a pretty tough schedule in my old job and was completely drained of energy by the time I got home, so there was no way I would have been able to write (especially since I'm not a native speaker and have to put in a lot of effort in making sure this doesn't show in the novels). As I've mentioned before, all it takes is 1000$/month


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## Shayne Parkinson (Mar 19, 2010)

Yes, I do, and have for about four years now. Sales slowly grew from a very low base, then about three years after I first published they reached a point at which I was comfortable relying on writing as my full-time income. I had four books out then, and now have six (*very* slow writer here).

A few details to add context: there's only my sweetie and me, no dependants (the sheep don't count). Although we live in an expensive area (median house price close on a million dollars), we've lived here for over fifteen years, and prices were much lower back then. After both working in IT for years, we were pretty well-established by the time I turned to writing full-time. I'm in New Zealand, so don't have the same issues with health insurance. We've had our own business for a long time, so are used to self-employment, bookkeeping, tax reporting, etc.

I love this writing life. Really, really love it. It's definitely the best job I've ever had.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Shayne Parkinson said:


> Yes, I do, and have for about four years now. Sales slowly grew from a very low base, then about three years after I first published they reached a point at which I was comfortable relying on writing as my full-time income. I had four books out then, and now have six (*very* slow writer here).
> 
> A few details to add context: there's only my sweetie and me, no dependants (the sheep don't count). Although we live in an expensive area (median house price close on a million dollars), we've lived here for over fifteen years, and prices were much lower back then. After both working in IT for years, we were pretty well-established by the time I turned to writing full-time. I'm in New Zealand, so don't have the same issues with health insurance. We've had our own business for a long time, so are used to self-employment, bookkeeping, tax reporting, etc.
> 
> I love this writing life. Really, really love it. It's definitely the best job I've ever had.


Aw, Shayne, I always pictured you as living in seriously rural NZ, surrounded by sheep, flax and angry volcanoes, like your characters. Illusion = shattered


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## Shayne Parkinson (Mar 19, 2010)

I do live in the country, Patty. Down a dirt road off another dirt road, surrounded by sheep and cows and by mature native forest, but no nearby volcanoes (they're from my old home town).  Two cars passing in the same day elicits surprise.

But since a piece of re-zoning that mystifies many of us, it's also a small enclave near the extreme edge of what's far and away the most expensive part of New Zealand (and housing prices have gone crazy in recent years).


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Shayne Parkinson said:


> I do live in the country, Patty. Down a dirt road off another dirt road, surrounded by sheep and cows and by mature native forest, but no nearby volcanoes (they're from my old home town).  Two cars passing in the same day elicits surprise.
> 
> But since a piece of re-zoning that mystifies many of us, it's also a small enclave near the extreme edge of what's far and away the most expensive part of New Zealand (and housing prices have gone crazy in recent years).


They're probably seachangers having fled Australia driving up the prices 

I can smell the flax now...


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

My indie books recently passed the quarter million earned mark, which is a comfortable living in my part of the country. My husband's job provides health insurance for our family and pays the bills, so my book sales have gone toward paying off the car, medical not covered by insurance (my daughter was briefly hospitalized a couple years ago and my early indie paychecks helped then), home mortgage, home improvements, and building up savings for the kids' schooling, etc. 

But I didn't sell overnight. I spent about a decade improving my craft and collecting a few hundred traditional agent/editor rejections first. Probably the hardest thing for me was learning to finish what I started and searching for alternate ways to break through, when most publishers weren't interested in my work. Luckily, I was turned on to ebooks and self-publishing at the right time and got good advice from more experienced writers, which led me to write series, use bargain pricing, permafree, fast releases, semi-cliffhangers, advertising, professional artists and editors, and mailinglists before it was all the common thing. I paid close attention to who was selling and ate up any advice they were willing to share, even if it went against my initial instincts. 

Long before all this, things were tight and hubby worked two jobs so I could stay at home with our two babies and write my little stories that weren't (at the time) paying for themselves. Having a very supportive spouse during the learning years was a huge advantage for me and I probably wouldn't have had the energy to even finish my books if it wasn't for him. So it took a few years (and indie publishing) before the writing finally started paying off.


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## Erratic (May 17, 2014)

I love hearing how many writers have a spouse believing in them. Give them a hug and a thanks, because they rock!


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## stoney (May 24, 2015)

ParkerAvrile said:


> Why would you take something you love and make it into a J-O-B if you had another option?


Why would you take a J-O-B that you (possibly) hate if you have the option to work at something you love?

I worked at a soul-crushing job for 10 years. My health was severely affected because of it. I have an advanced degree in it and it's in a very high demand field. With high demand comes high stress. I could command a huge salary. I wouldn't go back for any price. I'd rather scrape by writing than do that again.


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## Cindy Rinaman Marsch (Dec 14, 2015)

I've read through this whole thread yesterday and this morning, and I'm grateful for all the responses--encouraging, cautionary, realistic, good-natured. Thank you all.

I'm currently in a Kindle Scout campaign with my debut novel (yes, please, I'd appreciate it if you'd take a look!), and I know the odds are against me, but it's been performing well (see the KS thread on these boards), and I still cling to a little hope. I've got all I could ask for so far in reader response, and I'm grateful.

I, too, have the advantage of a spouse encouraging the dream, and I quit most of my online teaching (institutional and a decades-long private practice) for this school year to work on this novel and get a chance at a start in this business. Our nest is emptying (fourth child a high school senior), and it's finally time! I also have the advantage of a little inheritance from my mother that freed up several thousand dollars to give that economic wiggle room that enabled me to forego my usual part-time income. (I should note that my mother's death also inspired the decision--she gave me the journal on which the novel is based and told me I should "write this story.") We've scraped down our savings, too, so that things are looking pretty scary right now and we're having a small Christmas. But I'm ready to publish as soon as the Scout campaign finishes . . . one way or the other!

I wrote my first draft in the 2014 NaNoWriMo and spent time on it again in school breaks in January and April, then settled down in June to about 2/3 full time work. I did a research trip in June and have had almost $5k in expenses overall (the research trip, editing, cover art, websites, mailing list, ISBNs, business cards, etc.). I could have done it all for about $1k if necessary (simpler cover than a full-size oil painting done by my daughter, free versions of websites, self-editing--which is pretty darn good!), but I'm glad I've spent (most of) my money where I have.

I don't expect to "make a living" with my writing, but I'd love to be pleasantly surprised! And I'm prepared to jump right in again in January with the sequel to_ Rosette _as well as a version of the original journal. I agree that this is much better work (even the perplexing business side of things, on which I've spent many long hours/days/weeks/months) than the teaching I've done for the last three decades! I do get a bit excited thinking about doing developmental and line editing/coaching for other writers, though.

We shall see!


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## ShadyWolfBoy (Sep 23, 2015)

ParkerAvrile said:


> Probably, if you're lucky enough to be employable, you're making more in the job that you already have than you would ever earn as a writer. It does frustrate me that friends who are employable, and who actually have degrees/jobs, quit those jobs to try to be a writer. Why would you take something you love and make it into a J-O-B if you had another option?


I loved my job too. It had its stresses and its strains, but I loved what I did.

I didn't quit my job to 'try' to be a writer. I quit my job once I met a financial standard as an author that could replace my job, and I could trade trying to find the time to do two things I loved with making a living doing one thing I loved.


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## Mxz (Jan 17, 2015)

No.  I started about a year ago and didn't really know much about publishing, but put my book out.  The cover was good, but it wasn't on point with the others in the genre, the editing wasn't good, and I thought that I could reach out to media outlets and other places to promote it.  I also tried to target my audience and was able to get it on a magazine's website that used to be print, but now is online.  The feature was great for confidence, people liked the article, but no one bought the book.

It wasn't until I was introduced to Kboards that I found out about advertising and more about publishing and strategies.  I tried different advertisers over the year and finally got some bigger advertisers known for selling more books, but barely sold any when my ad ran.  I wasn't sure if it was due to the Thanksgiving week or if it was my book.  After releasing two new books (one novella and one novel), which both barely sold anything, I decided to start a pen name.  I switched the audience I was going for slightly, made sure the cover was fit in with the others in the genre, and promoted it on a smaller site (one I used before).  So far the second pen name has sold about half the amount of books in a few weeks that any of my others (2 novels, 2 novellas) have sold in the year.  I'm hopeful that the new pen name will help me make a living as well as the old one, once I'm able to reach the audience.


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## Veronica Sicoe (Jun 21, 2015)

> "Do you make a living as an author?"


_*hysterical cartoon laughter*_

Nope, not by far. But I love this thread and reading about where others are on their journey, and how they worked to get there. Very inspiring!


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## Guest (Dec 23, 2015)

Yes. I make a very good living. This year my 2015 income will have doubled over 2014. I support a wife and child (wife no longer has to work). I send my son to private school, I just bought a house, and 2016 looks to be shaping up better than 2015. It can be done. In fact, of the many indie and hybrid authors I know, my income is about average. I have friends that make a lot more than I do.


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## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

mahlaetan said:


> I would love to hear the stories of those of you who make enough to write full time. How did you get started? What was your break-free moment? Are you felling satisfied with the way things are going?
> 
> This is your time to make all of us excitedly jealous!


Yes, I feel very fortunate to do what I love. I went full-time after the third book in my series was published. It was then that I stopped working shift work as an RN. I'm completely happy with the decision and I feel like I have life by the balls. Sure, there are ups and downs, but I love the way there is always the potential to make it better with each new book I create. 
Yup. Love this gig!


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## JE_Owen (Feb 22, 2015)

Rick Gualtieri said:


> I make enough to live pretty nicely on as a single guy with no kids. However, being that I'm not a single guy with no kids, that changes things.


This just made me laugh. Had to give a nod.

This year I made a respectable part-time income from my books (**squee!**) So that they are mostly paying for themselves as far as publishing them. I have expensive tastes in editing, cover art, and farming out as much work as possible  I'm hoping the the fourth book in this quartet will be a tipping point, but either way I have lots more planned in a successful (knock on wood) world and am hoping to turn out books faster and gain momentum.

I also have a Bookbub December 31 so my fingers are crossed. ...


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

> I didn't quit my job to 'try' to be a writer. I quit my job once I met a financial standard as an author that could replace my job, and I could trade trying to find the time to do two things I loved with making a living doing one thing I loved.


I had a job too, that I really liked. Quitting has given me more personal time. I watch TV and movies with my husband now, and when we're out I together I'm not silently thinking, "I could be writing if I wasn't here." It's been better for my marriage in that way.


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## Amanda M. Lee (Jun 3, 2014)

Given the state of journalism today, I made darned sure before I quit my job as a reporter. I stayed a lot longer than other people would have, but I was extremely worried. I waited until I had a six-figure cushion. My last six months as a reporter I was working 80 hours a week and was exhausted. My one year anniversary of writing full time hits January 10. By the time I quit I was making more in a month than I was in a year as a reporter. Now I'm making double a month what I was as a reporter in a year. It was a good decision to leave, but I'm glad I waited until I was financially set so I wasn't constantly worried. Now I'm searching for my dream house (which I will buy with cash) and once I unload the craphole I live in I will have absolutely no debt. I find it easier to write when I'm not worried about finances constantly.


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## JE_Owen (Feb 22, 2015)

This might get moved to a more appropriate post or whatever-- but so many are talking about health insurance I wanted to mention something my sister recently told me about, called "Liberty HealthShare." It's basically a co-op, but I'll let you Google it. My hubby and I don't use it yet because we qualify for assistance (mixed blessing?  ) But if it's helpful to others I want it out there.

Happy writing all


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## Nancy_G (Jun 22, 2015)

No, not yet, anyway! I've been published since May 2015 with 2 novels, working on the 3rd in the series. I'm very encouraged by others saying the 3rd was the charm. I'm slowly building a network of reviewers/bloggers and getting reviews in, working on my website constantly. I just sent out a blog today about the recent interview I did that was posted today by a blogger/reviewer who enjoys my work. First time I used MailChimp for a campaign. I'm lucky in that my husband makes enough for me to write full-time, but with 3 teens, the needs are rising. Great thread and very encouraging!


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## Chris Fox (Oct 3, 2014)

Veronica Sicoe said:


> _*hysterical cartoon laughter*_
> 
> Nope, not by far. But I love this thread and reading about where others are on their journey, and how they worked to get there. Very inspiring!


To be fair you're fairly new to the game. I bet you'll be making a killing in a year, Veronica =)

This thread is great. I know going full time February 1st is the right thing to do, but giving up a six figure day job is still hard. Most people look at me like I'm crazy when I say I'm giving up being an engineer to be a writer.


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## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

No. But I make part-time money writing part-time at home, on my own schedule. It was nice to still have money rolling in to pay bills every month, for 8 months, without releasing a new book. I hope to ramp sales up to make a living with actual marketing next year (not much where and how we live - $2000/month would be plenty for our family and that will include vacations and guns for DH).


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## Andrei Cherascu (Sep 17, 2014)

Chris Fox said:


> To be fair you're fairly new to the game. I bet you'll be making a killing in a year, Veronica =)
> 
> This thread is great. I know going full time February 1st is the right thing to do, but giving up a six figure day job is still hard. Most people look at me like I'm crazy when I say I'm giving up being an engineer to be a writer.


I quit my IT job in a time when Microsoft was massively recruiting and many of my co-workers jumped ship. When I told my bosses and HR people I'm quitting to become a writer, the usual reaction I got was somewhere along the lines of: "Screw you, traitor! Enjoy Microsoft!" I'm certain that exactly zero people believed me. They seemed pleasantly surprised when they saw the Facebook posts about my books


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## robert eggleton (Feb 4, 2013)

I know of one guy who receives disability (SSI not SSDI) for a mental health concern and supports himself that way. You know of him too.


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## Chinese Writer (Mar 25, 2014)

This is a very inspiring post to me. I've thought about stopping several times this year because of the exhaustion from working full time, the kids, and moving (I moved houses twice this year). But I keep telling myself the tipping point is just around the corner. I figure if I could get two more books of my series out next year then I could say I gave writing a fair shake if it didn't work out for me, and I relegated it to the hobby bin.


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## Veronica Sicoe (Jun 21, 2015)

Chris Fox said:


> To be fair you're fairly new to the game. I bet you'll be making a killing in a year, Veronica =)
> 
> This thread is great. I know going full time February 1st is the right thing to do, but giving up a six figure day job is still hard. Most people look at me like I'm crazy when I say I'm giving up being an engineer to be a writer.


Thanks, Chris. I sure hope so, 'cause I'm planning a new series after the trilogy that'll scratch several market itches. I'll release and market it smarter too, thanks to KBoards wisdom. 

I work in IT for a pretty hefty wage as well, but given where I live, I'd have to earn _a lot_ to live from writing alone ('cause I'd have to pay all the insurances too). Maybe in a decade or so. Good thing I love my day job.


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## robert eggleton (Feb 4, 2013)

I'd heard, but there is a credibility concern, that Andy Weir self-promoted for three years before he got much of a bit on The Martian.


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## Dominique Mondesir (Dec 15, 2015)

Nope....

But I will.


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## Maestro (Nov 24, 2015)

Not yet. But that is my goal and I am quite sure that I will reach it in 2016. Great thread!


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## mwiings (Jul 24, 2015)

C. Gockel said:


> Quitting has given me more personal time. I watch TV and movies with my husband now, and when we're out I together I'm not silently thinking, "I could be writing if I wasn't here." It's been better for my marriage in that way.


This is what I'm looking for. I'll quit once my writing is able to match what my day job brings in because I don't want the financial worry to turn me into a miserable person. However, not yet releasing a book puts me way behind the starting line.

This is a really inspiring thread.


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## TestingEnabled (May 14, 2015)

I hopped into self publishing hoping to sell enough to earn the $2k a month I needed to live on. (Basically replacing my part time job and all my freelancing.)

Big surprise: About a year after I really focused, I earned $40k in a month (Nov. 2013). I thought it was a fluke and would go down, but I haven't had a less than $20k month since, with some months as high as $50k (release months).

I'm still really midlist, though. And my numbers have started to go down a little. I've not taken advantage of audio (yet, working on it next year), and I'm about to start a new pen name on the side. 

Needless to say, I no longer have the old job, and my fiance quit his as well. (He has his own creative projects he does work on though.) It may not last forever, but our goals are to buy a small house, and possibly a second to rent out and have that side income that can cover us if it ever goes under.

I'll probably continue to write for a good long while, while I can.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

TestingEnabled said:


> I hopped into self publishing hoping to sell enough to earn the $2k a month I needed to live on. (Basically replacing my part time job and all my freelancing.)
> 
> Big surprise: About a year after I really focused, I earned $40k in a month (Nov. 2013). I thought it was a fluke and would go down, but I haven't had a less than $20k month since, with some months as high as $50k (release months).
> 
> ...


I would love your numbers. My Amazon income is less than a quarter of yours per month. I would have a party if I ever saw 5 figures at Amazon


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## B.A. Spangler (Jan 25, 2012)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> This is REALLY long, skip to the end if you like. Wall of text incoming, but the short answer is YES.
> 
> My mum died of cancer the year I self-published my first book (in 2001) using Lightning Source. I realise now that I used writing as a way to hide from what was happening. Back then self-pub was shameful. I just sent out various rejection requests, and then when I got them I said thanks and self-pubbed on the quiet. I told no one, and sold nothing. Ebooks weren't yet a big thing, but they were around. Various types of readers were beginning to get noticed, but LS offered its own solution called Glass Books. Those were basically PDF in a fancy-skinned Adobe Reader. It didn't look like Adobe, but that's what it was beneath the bonnet.
> 
> ...


Love your story. Inspirational.


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## ClaireMarie (Feb 23, 2013)

Short blurb: I started writing to survive.

______

My husband and I retired to  Latin America. We were rolling change to pay for basics and waiting for the social security checks at the low point when he was hospitalized in intensive care. I asked him how he'd feel about me writing steamy romance and he was all for it. (Sexy devil, he is.)

From mid 2012 to mid 2013 I learned and wrote to survive. I was so happy when I could pay a bill or two. In 2013 I made maybe twice my husband's SS and was thrilled. In 2014 I made half again more and we moved to a gorgeous mountain home! 

This year I will fall short of six figures by just a wee bit which is nearly double last year. I have a beautiful (rented) home, no debt and a modest (very) savings. We have a brand new cheapo car bought and paid for. We eat out a lot and cook gourmet at home. 

Breaking point was the BooKBub first ad. I made what seemed like a fortune (a third of that year's income) that month! Never have done that well since but have snagged a few here and there (4 BB over 3 yrs.). Plus the confidence booster was great. 

I am starting a new pen name this year and have a one day a week assistant who is another expat and brilliant at graphics and other things I labor with so much. I have thousands of people on a mailing list and am searching for a local translator to get my books into Spanish (some are through Babel cube but I'll die before I see my percent of the royalty increase) because my most effective FB ad is for these books in Spanish. I have a mailing list of a 1100 in Spanish and I have about 2500 on my English one. 

I just pulled everything from wide and going back to KU with my whole catalog, even my big earning series. It's a 90 day risk. I'm looking for a person in my Spanish speaking host country to make my original pen name big in Spanish. I can hire a college grad for around $25 a day here. I am anxious to finish up my latest series and move along though and having a bit of a down end of the year . Wide only works well when I have a Bub and they don't like me lately. Hence the KU hopes and trying to squeeze a new release out by Jan. 15.

For me, it's all about learning all the tech stuff (being the hardest part), marketing and writing. I'd enjoy the writing more if I felt I had better control over the other two. But I am grateful every single day when I sit down to write my books. They literally changed our lives.


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## Talbot (Jul 14, 2015)

mwiings said:


> This is what I'm looking for. I'll quit once my writing is able to match what my day job brings in because I don't want the financial worry to turn me into a miserable person. However, not yet releasing a book puts me way behind the starting line.


Oh, details details...


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## Kay Bratt (Dec 28, 2011)

Amanda M. Lee said:


> Given the state of journalism today, I made darned sure before I quit my job as a reporter. I stayed a lot longer than other people would have, but I was extremely worried. I waited until I had a six-figure cushion. My last six months as a reporter I was working 80 hours a week and was exhausted. My one year anniversary of writing full time hits January 10. By the time I quit I was making more in a month than I was in a year as a reporter. Now I'm making double a month what I was as a reporter in a year. It was a good decision to leave, but I'm glad I waited until I was financially set so I wasn't constantly worried. Now I'm searching for my dream house (which I will buy with cash) and once I unload the craphole I live in I will have absolutely no debt. I find it easier to write when I'm not worried about finances constantly.


I'm blown away that you've accomplished all you have in just one year! Big kudos to you and I know with your work ethic, you've earned it.

(and yes, I make a good living as a full-time author and am very grateful to my readers!)


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> And then I come here and write all this. It's 22nd December 2015


Wow - that's amazing, Mark - and a great illustration of how we often have to keep reinventing ourselves and trying new things to be successful. Thanks so much for this!


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

I think that "making a living" means making enough to live on, wherever you are, regardless of the actual amount.

So: Yes and No

I make a part time living for a part-time career.

In 2013 I was made redundant while pregnant. That meant that I had a redundancy payment that covered me for three months followed by nine months of maternity pay. I didnt think I'd ever get a better chance to see if I could make it as an author and so I didnt bother to look for another job. Three years and two children later I'm still writing. But I can only work part time because I have the kids round my ankles all day, so I work at night when they are in bed.  Basically I get out (financially) almost exactly what I put in (time wise).

So I make half a living and my husband makes the other half. My income pays our mortgage and bills, and his income pays for food and fun. We live in the UK so we don't need health insurance, which sounds like a real bind for a lot of you.

I consider myself extremely lucky for my current situation, but I guess I'm greedy because I want to earn more than just enough to pay bills. My current idea of success is when I can afford for us to get our loft converted and buy myself a Land Rover. I feel confident I could achieve that if I had more time to write. But hey, these years are precious and I don't think I'll have any regrets.


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## TestingEnabled (May 14, 2015)

It was more than I was prepared to take care of at the time. I really didn't know what to do with once I was making more in a month than I used to make in a year. Might have been a little easier to get that gradual incline. I don't want to complain, but jumping to that bracket left a lot of 'crap, now I've got to do this and this and this' kind of stuff to take care of all at once. 

The more you have, the more you have to take care of.

But it is great to see more than a fair few here making at least what they made at work, even if part time. It's what I was gunning for and got lucky. I'm still no where near Hugh Howey and others, which makes me think of how crazy he must have felt getting so many sales and the bucks that started falling in after.


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## CJArcher (Jan 22, 2011)

I love reading all the stories here. They're so inspiring and thank you to everyone who has shared here.

After writing for about 15 years and not getting published (got an agent in that time, lost the agent 2 years later), I threw my hands in the air and started self-publishing in Jan 2011 (almost 5 years!). I've been full-time from the start because my youngest started school and I was a stay at home mum for a couple years before that. I was supposed to look for another technical writing job but a few months into self-publishing, I decided to give it one last shot and see if it worked out. I'd made a few thousand, and things were looking positive. In the last 5 years, I've had 3 books published by Amazon's Montlake Romance, been "let go" by Montlake and changed direction slightly to write more historical fantasy with romance instead of historical romance. I'm wide, except for those 3 Montlake books which earn very little compared to my self-published books. Oh, and I write some contemporary romance under another name, but it's not a big earner, usually.

Each year, my income has been better than the last, usually doubling. The Aussie dollar has sunk a little compared to the US, so that's nice too. I now earn 3-4 times what I earned as a full-time technical writer back in the day. My husband can afford to retire but he doesn't want to and we like that there's a safety net in case my income all goes away. We're debt free. But better than the financial freedom is the sheer fun I'm having. I love being my own boss, writing the books I enjoy, making my own decisions. Sink or swim, it's all on me. I know some people hate that, but I love it. If things go bad, I don't feel as if I've let anyone down. To me, that's freeing.


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## Jennifer Lewis (Dec 12, 2013)

I've been making my living as an author for some years now. Weirdly enough my income is pretty consistent from year to year. Yesterday I described a new book idea to my 14 year old daughter and she responded with, "Sounds like we're going to be homeless!" Okay, it wasn't the best idea ever. It made me laugh that she was translating story ideas into family spending power.


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## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

With what I made this month I could exist off my writing, as in pay rent, keep the lights on, and buy cheap food. For me existing isn't the same as living, so I'll have to do better before I stop working all together. I do find I'm all right working part time, though, so there's a step in the right direction.


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## KevinH (Jun 29, 2013)

I do; I was blessed to have a really good start and have been making decent scratch pretty much since day one.  However, I really like the day job and have no plans to quit at the moment.


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## Lara Gill (Dec 5, 2015)

Cherise Kelley said:


> It's Book*b*ub, not BookHub. I paid $540 for my last Bookbub promo.
> 
> https://www.bookbub.com/partners


Was it worth it?


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## Deblombardi (May 15, 2014)

TestingEnabled said:


> It was more than I was prepared to take care of at the time. I really didn't know what to do with once I was making more in a month than I used to make in a year. Might have been a little easier to get that gradual incline. I don't want to complain, but jumping to that bracket left a lot of 'crap, now I've got to do this and this and this' kind of stuff to take care of all at once.
> 
> The more you have, the more you have to take care of.
> 
> But it is great to see more than a fair few here making at least what they made at work, even if part time. It's what I was gunning for and got lucky. I'm still no where near Hugh Howey and others, which makes me think of how crazy he must have felt getting so many sales and the bucks that started falling in after.


I've got a teeny-tiny violin playing a sad song just for you.


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

2016 will be my eighth full year as a full timer.


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## Joe_Nobody (Oct 23, 2012)

I squeak by, selling 150-200 books per day.
It ain't airplane money, but...
After publishing 25 books since June of 2011, I'm known as the mayor of Grindersville.


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## Cindy Rinaman Marsch (Dec 14, 2015)

You folks are encouraging me as I poise on the edge of my first launch--whether it will be with Kindle Press or my own Moraine's Edge Books remains to be seen.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

> It's Bookbub, not BookHub. I paid $540 for my last Bookbub promo.
> 
> https://www.bookbub.com/partners





kittypixelscom said:


> Was it worth it?


Yes. But it isn't always, for everyone. Bookbub is a bit of a gamble.


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## Sheluvspink (May 14, 2014)

I do. I hit publish June of 2014. I pulled the plug on working the day job late December of that year when I was projected to make more from writing in a month than at my day job for six. I made more in 2015 than I could have at my day job if i worked overtime for five years. My day job was just that though a job not a career. I live in the suburbs of IL and it's not cheap, I'm thinking of relocating to get more bang for my buck. I pay about a 1000 for a 2 bedroom where I live and now and I know I could own a house for about half of that elsewhere. It is certainly possible. This year I want to double what I earned in 2015.


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## sela (Nov 2, 2014)

I posted my numbers here before. I earned about $9K in 2012 when I published my first paranormal romance novels. I took a break from finishing the series (supposed to be 5 books) and wrote an erotic romance series instead. I made $97K in 2013 and quit my day job to go full time in November of that year. In 2014 I earned $154K. Then in 2015, I earned $334K. I hope the income trend continues.


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## suliabryon (May 18, 2009)

Sela said:


> I posted my numbers here before. I earned about $9K in 2012 when I published my first paranormal romance novels. I took a break from finishing the series (supposed to be 5 books) and wrote an erotic romance series instead. I made $97K in 2013 and quit my day job to go full time in November of that year. In 2014 I earned $154K. Then in 2015, I earned $334K. I hope the income trend continues.


Sela, are you still writing erotic romance? I guess in all of the posts I've read (and you have posted your awesome and inspiring numbers before), I never realized the genre. Not that people don't make really good money in many genres, I'm just wondering in your case, how much do you think genre has contributed to your success?


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

mahlaetan said:


> I have heard numbers people talk about BookHub on this site. I checked it out today and it was in the thousands. Is that right?


Bookbub is by far the most successful promotional tool for independent authors and publishers. It is almost always worth it and I throw in the 'almost' only because I have a theory that nothing _always_ works. The cost isn't generally in the thousands but I paid a thousand for a recent promotion and $330 for one that just ran. The price varies depending upon genre and the type of promotion, whether reduced price or freebie.

But worth it? If you can get one, you betcha. 

To answer the OP's question, I do make a living as an author and have for quite a long time. It isn't always easy but a number of us do it.


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## Huldra (Nov 7, 2013)

.


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## mahlaetan (Nov 29, 2015)

Wow! I came here this morning to get encouragement again and was blown away that this thread was still going. So encouraging. I know that I have only one book/episode out but I have sales so low I can't even take my family to Starbucks but I am hopeful. I wake up every morning and tell myself today is the day I will get a sale and then sadly no. I will jut keep writing and if after the third installment move on if there is no sales.

I am so excited for all of you that do so well. I am sure it is wonderfully rewarding to put so much time into something that have it take off.


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

mahlaetan said:


> Wow! I came here this morning to get encouragement again and was blown away that this thread was still going. So encouraging. I know that I have only one book/episode out but I have sales so low I can't even take my family to Starbucks but I am hopeful. I wake up every morning and tell myself today is the day I will get a sale and then sadly no. I will jut keep writing and if after the third installment move on if there is no sales.
> 
> I am so excited for all of you that do so well. I am sure it is wonderfully rewarding to put so much time into something that have it take off.


Hi--if you don't mind unsolicited advice (famous last words, huh?)--your book cover could probably reflect the "funny, lively" nature of your book better. Bet that would help a bunch with sales. (It doesn't have to cost tons of money.) Good luck!


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## mahlaetan (Nov 29, 2015)

Rosalind James said:


> Hi--if you don't mind unsolicited advice (famous last words, huh?)--your book cover could probably reflect the "funny, lively" nature of your book better. Bet that would help a bunch with sales. (It doesn't have to cost tons of money.) Good luck!


Rosalind,

Thank you for the advice but the book is dark. It is a thriller borderline fantasy. It does have a lot of humor but is more dark. I am glad that that is what it conveys.


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## mahlaetan (Nov 29, 2015)

Rosalind,

I hit reply before I inserted that I love your book covers.  They are great!

M.E.


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

mahlaetan said:


> Rosalind,
> 
> I hit reply before I inserted that I love your book covers. They are great!
> 
> M.E.


Thanks! Sorry for the advice. I think it's the bit of disconnect between the tone of the blurb & the cover that threw me. The blurb sounds like the book's funny (which isn't a bad thing!)


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

mahlaetan said:


> Wow! I came here this morning to get encouragement again and was blown away that this thread was still going. So encouraging. I know that I have only one book/episode out but I have sales so low I can't even take my family to Starbucks but I am hopeful. I wake up every morning and tell myself today is the day I will get a sale and then sadly no. I will jut keep writing and if after the third installment move on if there is no sales.
> 
> I am so excited for all of you that do so well. I am sure it is wonderfully rewarding to put so much time into something that have it take off.


My first year was like that. It takes having a body of work out in order to make a living. When I first self-published I was in a position to retrieve rights to a couple of earlier novels so it didn't take as long, but starting from scratch may be a long road. That doesn't mean you won't get there.


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## TestingEnabled (May 14, 2015)

Deblombardi said:


> I've got a teeny-tiny violin playing a sad song just for you.


I know, I know. 

But it reconfirmed for me that there is no, "I'm going to get here and then things are good." Nope. Life keeps going beyond that. I mean, things can always be worse, but it's not like life became simple peaches instantly once those paychecks started rolling in. It was more work, more to do. I still have to write more books to keep up. Only now I have to manage more people and figure out more things. 

It would have been way more helpful to hear from the bigger earners about, "when you get to this level, do this and this and this to keep yourself sane". I had to ask a lot of stupid questions and do research on my own for a good part of it.


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## Ltemodel (Mar 12, 2016)

I love hearing the inspiring stories about authors making a living through self publishing. 
I know many don't want to share their earnings, but when I'm struggling it's kind of a 'pick me up' for what is possible and I really appreciate those who do share.
I'm making money, but not earning a living.
It's enough to pay for some gas or groceries, but to crack the nut of not having to go to work everyday is the ultimate goal.


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