Does anyone plan to make a career from this?

[IanDonyer]

So, does anyone plan to make a career as a writer? Or is just a hobby for you; something to do when you're bored?

I sure do plan to make a career out of it. I love writing more than any other hobby I've picked up in the past. I'm currently in the beginnings of writing something that I hope to get published, in fact.

 

[Miz en Scène]

Ah, but only a fraction of writers anywhere can actually live off their royalties. You're going to have to make it big to actually consider quitting your day job. Case in point: Isaac Asimov was a Professor of Biochemistry at Boston U. Publishing books is also going to be hard even if it's not going to be a career choice. I'll be repeating what others have said when I say, 'do you know how many manuscripts reach publishing houses each year?' That's to say, only a few of those aspiring authors are chosen to be published etc etc...

With that said, I don't intend for writing to be a full time career, but I do intend to publish a book, no matter how hard, as a source of side-income alongside my actual job.

 

[Dagzar]

I'd like to, but as Mizan said, being a writer isn't the most stable job and it's very hard to get in the business. I've done a bit of research in getting published, and while have a good story will help you get published, it also depends on a great amount of luck. Even if you do get some books published, they'd have to be pretty popular for you to live off the earnings properly.

So, yeah, even if I do manage to get some books published, I doubt I'll be quitting my day job any time soon.

 

[JX Valentine]

Ah, but only a fraction of writers anywhere can actually live off their royalties. You're going to have to make it big to actually consider quitting your day job. Case in point: Isaac Asimov was a Professor of Biochemistry at Boston U. Publishing books is also going to be hard even if it's not going to be a career choice. I'll be repeating what others have said when I say, 'do you know how many manuscripts reach publishing houses each year?' That's to say, only a few of those aspiring authors are chosen to be published etc etc...

Pretty much this. And on top of that, allow me to spew the usual rant/facts on the subject, just to enlighten whoever doesn't really know.

Spoiler:

Only a fraction of the people who send in manuscripts actually get published at all. From those authors, a very small percentage are actually fiction writers. Most noteworthy publishing houses accept primarily nonfiction and secondarily fiction, meaning most of the roughly 100000 books they publish a year (and that's just an estimate given by a pretty major publishing house -- think Macmillan-level) are actually not fiction. Moreover, many publishing houses actually commission books to be written -- as in, they go to the authors and tell them what they want to publish.

Of course, breaking into the writing business in the first place is a difficult thing to pull off. Most houses don't accept unsolicited (read: not commissioned and without representation from a literary agent) manuscripts at all. That means you'll have to approach a literary agent first. Most people don't know this part, so they end up sending their manuscripts to publishers, only to have them auto-rejected at the door. This also means that you'll need to do a lot of research (in order to avoid getting ripped off when it comes to agents), and you run at a risk of being rejected by an agent as well. Assuming you get past this point and find someone to represent you (or assuming you decide to try getting published without one), you still have that risk of being rejected anywhere down the line of a publisher's editors. Publishing houses have more than one editor. Sometimes, the assistant editor -- the lowest link on the chain of command, so to speak, given their normal clerical duties and the fact that this is either an internship or entry-level position -- will also scan manuscripts and recommend their superiors to look the best ones over. ...Which means, yes, you may be rejected by an intern.

And then, on the off-chance that you'll actually be published, Mizan is right. The average writer doesn't actually make that much from royalties. On a professional level, you'll be expected to write a novel in only a couple of weeks (NaNoWriMo on steroids all the time, basically), and if you don't, you'll only be making roughly $10k a year. If you do and actually write stuff that sells well, make that roughly $30k. It's very, very rare for people to break $100k a year.

This isn't to say don't do it. You could be lucky, or you could either self-publish or submit to a vanity press (publisher who will pretty much put out anything -- think Lulu.com), although neither option is particularly profitable if you're not that great at advertising. Alternatively, there are plenty of magazines out there you could try submitting short stories to; most authors tend to do this instead of writing novels due to the fact that it's just a more profitable market. Naturally, most magazines will prefer that you have some background in publishing (i.e., you've had your work already published), but there's a number of youth anthologies and magazines that will take your work. Hence, my advice is to start early if you want to be a professional author. You'll need the credentials.

Alternatively, you could do what I do, blow off the writing part of it, and work for a publishing house instead. Writing is still going to be a hobby of mine, but I'm going to grad school for publishing in order to be a beta-reader ~*~IN REAL LIFE~*~ an editor.

 

[Bay]

Yeah, I don't think I'll make writing my career. I would love to, but I'm not very skilled at writing even after doing it as a hobby for over five years, my mood for writing is unpredictable, and also I know I can't make a living out of it. I do want to publish a few stories/novels relating to mysteries and thrillers as those are the kind of stories I know most about, but yeah that's about it.

 

[Astinus]

I'm staying in fanfiction. Writing was something I was serious about for a long while, but I'm older now and realize that it's not the best way to support my adult life. (That sounds dirty.) Besides, I have a completely different passion that I can make a career out of.

That, and I never really thought of my own original fiction. It was always fanfiction, so I don't see why I should strain myself to think of original fiction when I'm having absolute fun writing fanfiction.

I take this to mean that I'm so far the only one who doesn't even aspire to have any relation to the writing world in any way aside from fanfiction communities online. Ah well.

 

[icomeanon6]

I lack the talent and the desire to do so. Yeah, it sounds fun, but so would being an astronaut. Besides, my real passion is for programming, and that's also what I'm best at, so it wouldn't make sense to gamble on becoming an excellent writer that I know I'm not. I'll keep trying to get better at writing, of course, but I make no delusions about ever becoming the kind of author that I'd want to be. Sometimes it's best if a beloved hobby remains just that.

But hey, if it's something you seriously want to do and still want to do years from now, the power to you. As they say, though, don't quit your day job. Cutthroat business out there from what I've heard.

 

[IanDonyer]

YOU PEOPLE ARE DEPRESSING.

Okay, okay, you all make legitimate points. Glad to see some response to this.

You have made me depressed, and out-of-control-horny, ASTINUS, you dirty person D< surprised at how one or two of you have said you weren't good enough.

Don't have that 'tude. I can understand thinking it'll be difficult, but don't say you lack the talent to do so!

 

[Astinus]

It's not so much that we don't believe enough to not get published. It's just that you gotta believe! one has to think realistically about making writing a career rather than just something you do on the side. It's not just about going home and writing one page a day, as someone said on SPPf. It's also editing what you write, doing it under a deadline (if your agent gives you one), and getting published enough times to make money from it to live slightly.

I mean, I have the talent to write. I've practiced for years and learned what I could to be as good as where I am now. It's just that to think about everything else that goes into actually publishing something and getting anywhere into that part of the industry makes me want to stay in fanfiction.

Unless I become a published fanfiction author, because those tend to be horrible but popular.

 

[Misheard Whisper]

I appear from the shadows like a ninja
Ideally, HELL YES. To make a living from writing would be a dream come true, and I'm never going to stop writing and working towards that.
Realistically, HELL NO. While it would be amazing, it's hardly viable. It's a very tough industry, as numerous others have said. So instead, I'm going to look for something else to do with words - I like foreign languages as well as writing in my own, so maybe something in the diplomatic corps, where I get to talk a lot? Failing that, I'd like to be an historian.
Still, writing would be the ultimate life. *dreams*
I disappear back into the shadows from whence I came, also like a ninja

 

[The_Noob]

Keep dreaming, dude. Most writers are usually shafted due to the fact that the ones who can profit better (ie; Twilight) will reign supreme. It's a cynical use of one's imagination (or lack thereof), but money must be earned somehow by those publishing companies.

Anyways, books are a dying art, and writers never get paid too much. Unless they get famous, like really famous.

Noob out.

 

[Daydream]

Becoming a published writer is something I've aspired to do for a very long time now. I'm definitely going to give it a shot, because it's something I love very much. But, being realistic, it will probably be something I only do on the side (of teaching, hopefully) and then on the off chance that I do make it big I'll quit that job.~

I'm gonna be the next J.K. Rowling. Or something.

 

[JX Valentine]

Anyways, books are a dying art,

Difficult to get into, yes. Dying, no. E-books, baby. They're all the rage now.

But otherwise, yes, pretty much you can't really make a living off of it unless you happen to be lucky (i.e., come up with the next biggest thing*). That isn't really to say that you shouldn't attempt it. Just that there's a lot you'll want to consider and a lot of side steps no one ever actually thinks about if you actually want to make it. Moreover, it's just safer to keep your day job either way unless you really are pretty lucky.

Or, well, go into something other than the writing part of the publishing industry. There's lots of awesome jobs out there besides being a writer, after all.

* Note that I said "next biggest thing." If you publish something trendy right now, you run into one of two risks. The first is that if you're lucky and get published at the height of the trend, you'll just be written off as a rip-off book series of something that's better (even if that something is Twilight) or, even worse, the literary equivalent of a sell-out. The second and more likely is that you won't be lucky, and the trendy thing changes before your book can hit the shelves. Think about it. Only a few years before Twilight got popular, everyone was talking about wizards and witches thanks to Harry Potter. A few years ago, everyone started talking about sparkly vampires and werewolves that don't sparkle. While we're still on the vampire craze, there's not really any way to be sure that next year, we're going to be talking about something else.

A published author I once had the pleasure of listening to offered an analogy from her own life. She said that when she tried to publish her first book, it was basically inspired by Bridget Jones's Diary, and that was okay in her view because that was popular at the time. However, by the time she was ready to publish, Bridget Jones was old news. Needless to say, she had to scrap that novel and write one completely from scratch. While she's not at JK Rowling's level, she does write for a living, and she is decently popular in the chick lit genre.

In short, you're right about trends on a level. But there's definitely more of a risk to it because you actually have to have a lot of foresight. Publishing houses won't accept anything that's not going to sell well, but they will accept something that sounds like it might sell well by starting a brand-new trend. It's like being in the fashion industry. You can't risk accidentally designing something that was more fashionable last season, but you also can't risk designing something that just won't sell at all.

But that's why having a lit agent helps massively. The lit agent would be industry savvy enough to know all this and help point you in the right direction, assuming you're talented enough.

 

[Nutella]

So, does anyone plan to make a career as a writer? Or is just a hobby for you; something to do when you're bored?

I'm torn. I'm currently an under-grad student in social sciences, but I do enjoy writing a lot! I started off with original fiction, and put it up on a FictionPress, but I was dissatisfied with the quality and removed it. I then found love with fan-fiction. I primarily write for Naruto, but I'm working on a Pokemon one, too. I think I'll definitely keep on writing, but perhaps get a day job first. Even though you get published, only VERY few can live on the earnings... what a shame!

Writing is wonderful, because it's one of the few things in life where I feel as though I can continually improve, and strive to do so. I also think creative writing saved me from my earlier troubles with writing and speaking English.

I was just wondering, what were the genres that you guys like to write? I like fantasy the best.

 

[Impo]

I was thinking of maybe finishing a book for self-accomplishment then trying to get it published, but that's a rather high hoped dream.

fun fact - J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter was rejected by 12 publishers before making it towards the shelves.

 

[Bay]

I was thinking of maybe finishing a book for self-accomplishment then trying to get it published, but that's a rather high hoped dream.

fun fact - J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter was rejected by 12 publishers before making it towards the shelves.

She's actually quite lucky then to have HP published with so few rejections. Many, MANY authors have more rejections than that. I know people that are trying to get published and had like 20 rejections and still hadn't found an agent willing to take their work to the publishing houses. Just letting you know that aspiring writers will get more than 12 rejections.

As for me, I love writing mystery and suspense. It's fun thinking up of different clues and events that would make the readers grip at their seats. I have been experimenting with other genres, only for almost all of my stories to have some sort of action you see all the time in action movies. Heck, even a romance story of mine had some intense BAYPLOSION action in it. XD;

 

[Phototoxin]

As a scientist I'm expected to write and publish papers but I'd like to publish a fantasy novel at some point.

 

[Aquacorde]

It'd be lovely to be able to have a writing career. As it stands, I do believe I'm better off writing in my spare time and still working. I'll probably attempt to publish something along the way, but whether or not it's good enough to sell well (or bad enough *cough*) is something that is to be determined.

 

[SeleneHime]

I would love to make a career out of writing, but I do know that unless one of my novels hit big right off the bat, I'll have to have a job so I'm not a starving artist. So, I plan on going into a field I know I already enjoy. Ideally, with an English major and plans to publish on the side.

 

[PrinceTrase]

Yeah, I've written two novels so far. At the moment, I'm working on this short fiction which I'm feeling pretty good about. Once I'm done with it, I'm hoping to get it published in a magazine or something. It's going to take some time though. I should get started on editing and stuff.