This is my second blog. Not that I am going to number all my blogs and remind you each and every time. Nope! Not my thing. But after my awe-inspiring and award-winning initial blog, I thought it was time to do this one [Awe? Awards? Did I miss something? – Ed.].
There is an expression, “Time is money.” When I was younger, I didn’t quite fully appreciate it. As I grew more experienced [Nice turn. Never admit you are old. Especially as old as you are. – Ed.], I realized the profundity of that phrase. I also realized the profundity of profundity. As a prefix, pro- generally indicates approving, in favor of, for, forward or positive. But, fundity is not a word. At least, a word I can find. So, I am not exactly clear what I am in favor of, which I guess is profound. And! I am definitely in favor of founding (see initial blog).
Now, if all that sounds like a company in the Science Fiction and Fantasy market that you want to be around, we are happy invite you to join us in the fun. In fact, consider us profun.
Now seriously, what the heck does all this have to do with time and money? Well, I can finally get to that. If you are an author or aspiring author, not sure if expiring authors fit but sure why not, you will come to realize that there are two extremes to creating your book. You probably have time, with little or no money. Or you have money with little time to do things.
This is a model of that challenge. Like all models, it is wrong. But, in this case, it is still a useful model. For example, no one has infinite time or infinite money. So, there are limits. But, as an author, you have to consider where you fit on this spectrum.
It can be an approximation. We don’t test you on it. But considering it will give you a point from which you can appropriately consider your options.
There is another truth of publishing your book… every author needs help. To the best of my knowledge, no author has planted seeds, grown trees, cut them down, converted them into paper, acquired the chemicals for ink… I think that is enough to make my point.
Publishing a book, even an e-book, is a collective process that requires lots of support. That supports costs money to someone, be it the author, the specialists that support the author, the publisher, the bookstores or online markets, and the distributors, without counting all the indirect supporters involved in the process.
Everyone is going to get paid. The question is when are they going to get paid?
If you have the money, you can pay upfront. If you don’t and the supporter allows it, you can pay from the proceeds of the sale of the book. And here is the startling reality of being an author, everyone involved in your book has a bill, and they are going to get paid. Some now. Some later. But at no point is there any consideration for you, as the author, to get paid.
Read that again… while everyone else gets paid, as the author, you are the last person in line to receive any of that pay.
You are literally in the same boat that I/we, the co-founders of Strange, Far, and Fantastical, Inc. are. If you want get paid, you are dependent upon people buying your book, hopefully buying in large quantities. Just like we are dependent upon helping as many authors as possible.
Here comes the first hard truth. It has been reported that the average writer writes about 1,000 words per day. While I don’t know if that is true, there are a lot of sites (here’s one) that have quotes by famous authors on how much they think they write. Here’s the truth, that is all anecdotal evidence. There have been famous books that have been written quickly and others have taken years (see this infographic on 30 famous books). All this is to say that there are no rules. A story takes as long as it takes to write.
BUT! And you knew this was coming, didn’t you? If we accept the 1,000 words per day, and we accept that a novel is between 70-100,000 words, it will take you around 70-100 days to write that novel. If the median writer makes $5,000 for that effort (and here is some data to support that), that means you are spending 560-800 hours to make $5,000, which is between $6-$8 an hour. This is just writing time. It doesn’t count edits and rewrites, talking to editors, publishers, agents, distributors, and all the other things that go into getting your story into the reader’s hands.
BUT! WOW! You didn’t expect a second “but”, did you? Writing and publishing the book is just the start. If you expect to just throw the book over to the publishers and expect success, expect to be disappointed. You might get lucky. You might also win the lottery or get struck by lightning.
But, if the important thing to you was to become a published author, you have succeeded. Financial success is not important to you. You may have even spent your own money, and the net return to you is even less. But! You have accomplished your goal. Congratulations!
BUT! [Hey, do you think you have too many buts in this thing? – Ed.] If you want to begin the process towards becoming a professional writer, or improve your outcomes as an existing writer, we can help. Getting your book published is just the start.
There are things you can and should do to improve your financial return. We at Strange, Far, and Fantastical, Inc. want to have the chance to be your partner in making your book, books, series, or writing career as successful as it can be. Talk to us. We can help, whether you have more time than money or more money than time.