Deirdre Saoirse Moen

Sounds Like Weird

More Author Earning Data: Making a Living or No?

28 March 2014

I haven’t updated the spreadsheet I pulled a few weeks ago, but here are the numbers from the last I pulled.
There are some data quality problems here. The low end of people who say they’re making a living writing? I don’t think $450 is a likely real response. Likewise, some of the higher numbers from people who say they’re not making a living writing would be perfectly respectable incomes for many. I’m not judging people’s responses here, just pointing out that there may have been some incorrect yes/no responses.
And, as always, this is self-reported data, so take it with a grain of salt.

Authors Saying they Make a Living Writing

Type # 25% 50% 75% 90% 95% 100%  
Self 160 25,000 51,000 140,000 305,000 500,000 13,000,000  
Hybrid 103 55,000 103,000 235,000 540,000 1,025,000 3,663,000  
Trad 27 18,300 55,000 100,000 215,000 250,000 450,000  

Authors Who Say They’re Not Make a Living Writing

Type # 25% 50% 75% 90% 95% 100%  
Self 571 150 800 5000 15,000 24,000 113,000  
Hybrid 78 2,300 10,200 20,000 40,008 50,000 89,150  
Trad 54 500 4,000 17,500 35,000 50,000 60,000  

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