by Bruno Somerset

Created on: July 09, 2007

At some point in his or her life every novelist dreams of leaving their job to write full time. It seems as if it would be the perfect life, and perhaps it would be. But I read a survey recently that claimed only 900 novelists in the United States make their living solely from writing novels, or about 700 less than the number of men playing in the NFL. This certainly appears to stack the deck against the vast majority of us hoping to quit our jobs and write full time.

With fewer people reading (the number is down 10 percentage points since 1982, according to a study by the National Endowment for the Arts) and thus fewer people buying books, what was always a tough market just keeps getting tougher. Many authors never even make back their initial advance from the publisher, which is causing advances to shrink as well. However, I choose to look at the amazing 900 full-time authors and see them as proof that it can be done.

I think there are two main ways to make a living strictly from writing novels (both of which assume that you have overcome the battle to finish your first novel, find an agent to represent you, and get a publisher to release your book). The first is the home run novel.

This means publishing a novel that, for whatever reason, so resonates with the public that it takes on a life of its own, as was the case with The DaVinci Code and the Harry Potter series. You can also hit a home run if Oprah decides she likes your novel. In either case, the way you would be making your living would be from royalties on the tens of millions of copies sold.

The second option returns us to the land of reality. Most of us will never have a book sell in the millions of copies; our best hope is to focus on being as prolific as possible without sacrificing quality. What I mean by this is that you need to write as many quality novels as you possibly can. If you can't sell a million copies of one book, then sell 100,000 copies of ten novels or 20,000 copies of fifty. The outcome is the same.

This option obviously won't work for the writer who labors for years and years over a manuscript. That person will need to hope that lightning strikes and option one happens to them. But if you do have the ability to write quickly, I have one more suggestion. Use a pen name (or two) in addition to your own name or write different genres.

Most authors, even those as productive as Robert B. Parker and Janet Evanovich, will only release one or at most two books per year. Even these two authors, however, only release more than one book a year because they currently write more than one detective series. If you publish too often under the same name, or too often in the same series, readers' anticipation is lost, and sales will drop.

There is also the chance that you could earn additional income from your novels through the sale of film rights. This has worked very well for authors like John Grisham, Stephen King, and of course J.K. Rowling; the success of their books helps fuel the success of the films, which in turn helps fuel more book sales. All in all, a very nice cycle to find yourself in.

In the end, you're simply trying to find a way to get paid for something you will otherwise keep doing for free. Ultimately, the key to being able to someday make a living writing comes down to the same thing that is required to improve as a novelist. Write, write, write...and then write some more.

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