Writer Sanctum
Writer's Haven => Quill and Feather Pub [Public] => Topic started by: Shoe on October 15, 2018, 12:17:00 PM
-
In other words, is writing your only job? For me, it's a yes.
-
Yes, since Feb/Mar this year.
-
Coming up on my five-year anniversary.
-
Yes! Since last year.
-
Three years and some change.
-
Yes.
:banana-riding-llama-smiley-em
-
Almost 12 months now.
-
That's the dream! I'm really, really hoping to gradually cut my days at work if the writing starts to take off. And for everyone who is writing full time, kudos!
-
No - I doubt if I ever could. Not only is there so much else to do, but writing at my preferred speed (about 10,000 words a week) doesn't take up a whole working week, and I need to pause and work out where to go next at times too.
At the moment I also have a part time day job in an art gallery from which I will retire in the next year or two.
-
Yes - for 2.5 years by now.
-
No. I run multiple businesses.
But I make a full-time income publishing books.
-
Not yet, though I am hoping so by this time next year.
-
Yes. Retired from a career as an RN. Couldn't be happier.
-
Not yet, but I'm hopeful. :dog1:
-
I write full time, but it's not my only job. Luckily, I consider this the 'fun' part of my day. :angel:
-
Not yet… but it's gotten easier as the kids have grown.
-
Yes, for about 7 years. But I don't *write* 40 hours a week, so I guess I'm a part-time writer and part-time publisher.
-
I'm unable to work anymore, but I still just write part-time. But a fun part-time it is!
-
But I don't *write* 40 hours a week, so I guess I'm a part-time writer and part-time publisher.
I don't think there's a need to distinguish between the actual writing and all other writerly activities. For every hour of writing, I put in three or more hours of editing. Between books, I'm researching or writing preliminary drafts and outlines. The non-writing side, covers, blurbs AMS, etc., I sneak in around the edges of my "writing" week and to a very minimum degree.
-
I don't think there's a need to distinguish between the actual writing and all other writerly activities.
Exactly. I do some of my best working while napping, for instance.
:icon_rofl:
-
Five and a half years and counting here.
-
Yes, since March this year.
-
It would be seven years but I took a 'sabbatical' for most of the last year, so that part probably doesn't count. I am back at it now.
-
Yes, for about 7 years. But I don't *write* 40 hours a week, so I guess I'm a part-time writer and part-time publisher.
This.
-
Nope. Writing is very much a hobby that gives mad money...and it’s contributing to the kids college fund.
-
Not really sure how to answer that. I went on disability a couple of years ago and started looking at writing as something I've always wanted to do and now had the time to do it. My goal now is to earn enough from my writing to be able to do away with the disability check. I'm just struggling to find the energy to write three to four hours a day, which I would consider full time. In four hours I can write 6000 words easily. Getting myself to do that though, that is the challenge.
-
I write full time, but it's not my only job. Luckily, I consider this the 'fun' part of my day. :angel:
This is my answer as well. I spend just as much time writing as I do at my day job, which I love immensely. I basically have 2 careers. :)
-
I've made my living this way for almost 5 years.
-
Yep! Four years this January. I could've made the switch much earlier, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't a fluke first.
-
Six days in, this thread has had 520 views. Out of twenty-eight replies, fifteen members have given an unqualified confirmation of their full-time writing status.
Discounting multiple views by the same members, maybe 300 of the board's total membership (current 817) have actually viewed the post, which would (could) mean fifteen out of 300, or five percent (or forty out of 817) write full time. I know this is guesstimating at best but it's interesting to me nonetheless. When someone posts I don't always know where they're coming from experience-wise. I'm very surprised by the numbers (though I do realize they could be way off). I had falsely assumed most of us here (and on KB) wrote full-time.
-
I write full time and have for the past five years. I just didn't respond sooner because I lurk more often than I post grint
-
I write full time and have for the past five years. I just didn't respond sooner because I lurk more often than I post grint
Well, that changes everything.
-
Yes, have done for two years or so. Before that, my self-publishing income was supplemented by freelance editing and writing for magazines, but I haven't needed to do that since 2016.
-
It’ll be a year in November since I went full time.
-
Full time. Full time. Full time. Full time. There, I wrote it four times. I also literally wrote it four times on a piece of paper so you can't try to catch me on the technicality of typing versus writing as I did both. So there.
What was the question again? I think I forgot.
:writethink:
-
What was the question again? I think I forgot.
:writethink:
What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
-
What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Twenty-three point nine miles per hour, give or take.
But I would be more concerned about the Rabbit of Caerbannog.
-
A poll would be more useful, from my POV. For those who didn't necessarily want to say "yes" or "no" on a public forum. I feel like we ask this question a lot in the community, though, so obviously this is something of interest to many people here, and a "names please" approach suits many.
The thing is, my "full time, making a living," isn't going to be your "full time, making a living." And when people are, say, living off their retirement or pensions, but writing full time now that they're retired, well, that's a more nuanced and complicated thing, isn't it? It's also going to sound like you're lying if you say yes without qualifying and elsewhere said you were living off your retirement.
It's complicated. Not everyone wants to share everything. I feel like I've spilled my guts about my income numerous extensive times in the indie community and I'm not interested in continuing to do that. I'll vote in a poll. That's it.
-
The thing is, my "full time, making a living," isn't going to be your "full time, making a living." And when people are, say, living off their retirement or pensions, but writing full time now that they're retired, well, that's a more nuanced and complicated thing, isn't it? It's also going to sound like you're lying if you say yes without qualifying and elsewhere said you were living off your retirement.
I agree.
Monthly or annual net (pre-tax) would be more enlightening.
-
Nope. I am writing for the last two years. I have excuses (most of them legit) to not to focus on it full time yet. However, I aim to create full time shortly. It is in my five years development plan for sure. I hope I will be able to do it. At the moment, I am not an "earning" author.
-
The thing is, my "full time, making a living," isn't going to be your "full time, making a living."
Ain't that the truth. ("I can't live on $50k, so it's not a living for me" or "Yeah, but if you three kids, $100k isn't going to cut it").
So, I've learned not to ask about net income or whether someone "makes a living" from their writing. I also don't give a sh*t what anyone makes.
But I am curious to know who makes writing their full-time occupation--who lives and breathes it. My earlier suspect stats indicated 1.8% to 22% of forum members write full-time. It's probably more like 8-12%.
-
So, I've learned not to ask about net income or whether someone "makes a living" from their writing. I also don't give a sh*t what anyone makes.
But I am curious to know who makes writing their full-time occupation--who lives and breathes it.
That's exactly how I read the OP question and that's how I answered it. Do I write full time? Yes. It's my only job.
:writethink:
-
Not yet. Mostly because I have a tendency to procrastinate. I should have more books written and out than I do. The goal for next year is to be able to quit the day job.
-
Discounting multiple views by the same members, maybe 300 of the board's total membership (current 817) have actually viewed the post, which would (could) mean fifteen out of 300, or five percent (or forty out of 817) write full time.
Thank goodness we're writers, not statisticians.
-This is in a public thread, so you could also have non-registered members viewing. How many lurkers are there on WriterSanctum? Not sure, but right now we have 24 users and 16 guests. I'd guess 40% of the views come from guests. That would mean registered users provided about 300 views only.
-Yes, multiple views count as views, and if you assume that 520 views means 300 unique visitors, it doesn't make sense. It would mean that most people visited only once. I think every time an interested thread is bumped, people check, and people tend to check often similar threads. How many times did you see this thread? 3, 5, 10? So redo your calculations. I'd guess about 45 to 100 registered users viewed the thread. Remember only about 300 views come from registered users, based on the percentage of guests. And there are lurkers who like to lurk regardless of the topic.
-This is in a public thread and many people, especially writers making an income from writing, don't want to disclose this information.
- This is following a thread where people discuss the "absence of big sellers" in this forum, where you argue that most people here aren't successful writers, then try to pull numbers to prove it. Some users might not want to contribute to that line of thought and to the idea that, as non full-time writers, they are dead weight on this forum. The question comes as a dare of sorts, as in: "Are you a real writer?" Nope, I don't want to answer. But it's an interesting discussion. I might want to read it.
So if you want to check the percentage of "full-time writers", a poll would be better, for sure. And it would be cool not to have assumptions about this. Some writers make a lot of money with their books but like their other jobs, for example. Some writers live in areas with low living cost. That said, I do agree that making a living income from writing is an excellent measure of success, and it's interesting, but what's the point of checking that? To check the usefulness of the forum? Writers who aren't commercially successful might have insights on small things that they do well, or even as readers.
Now me, nope, only coffee income from writing. I'll go back to my non-successful-writer cave and hide in shame. Ha! Just kidding. Proud of where I am.
I just replied because bad Math drives me insane. Seriously.
-
I just replied because bad Math drives me insane. Seriously.
I quite accurately and appropriately referred to my numbers as both a "guestimate" and "suspect", and was rather transparent with the "math" in case anyone had any doubts.
-
I write full time!
-
I’ve been full time since 2015. I started while I was out on an extended maternity leave and realized I really didn’t want to go back to my old job. grint
-
Yes. But I can't live off of just that income yet.
-
Part-timer here. I hit the publish button 11 months ago, and have four books to my name. While I've been very pleased with the results, given that my genre isn't one of the top listed out there. My first in series has stayed in the top 100 of my genre (most of the time) almost since it was published.
I hope to eventually move into full-time writing. I don't have the time (or more likely time management skills) to balance full-time work and writing more than three or four books per year. I've chucked out the 20to50 forum idea for my own. I'm in my mid-40s and am shooting for 20 by 50. Hopefully, by then, my stories will provide a full-time living.