Expert: Cathy Clamp - 2/7/2008

Question
How much money does a writer earn? Does he/she have to pay alot of money to publish? I am 13 and i love to write stories, poems etc. Will i earn enough money if i become a writer?

Answer
Hi, Samira!

Well, the amount a writer makes really varies. For example, if you become an author of books, a book can earn from a few hundred dollars to many thousands for the author. It all depends on how well the public likes the book. See, an author is paid by the publisher (meaning the author DOES NOT pay to be published) based on sales of the book. The author earns a percentage of the cover price, called a "royalty" that the publisher then pays to the writer every three to twelve months---but usually every six. However, publishers understand that an author needs to eat, so they often pay a chunk of the money up front. This is called an "advance." Like an advance against your allowance, the publisher expects that sales of the book will later repay the money they put out before the release of the book. The nice thing with the big publishers is that even if the sales don't repay the advance, the author doesn't have to pay it back either. It was a risk the publisher took, and if they lose money on the book, they lose money. It's just part of the game.

Now, for freelance writing---stories, magazine articles, poetry and such, it's a little different. Most magazines pay a flat fee to put the story/article, etc. in their magazine. They often request what's known as "First Rights." This means that the magazine is paying to be the FIRST to publish the story/article, but after the issue is off the shelf for a few months, you can sell the same article/story again as a "reprint." This method of writing can earn money over and over for the same writing. But rates vary wildly. One magazine might pay $1.00 a word (so a 3,000 word story would earn $3,000) while another would only pay a penny a word (so $30 for the same 3,000 word story.) Naturally, to make good money, you have to work for the good paying magazines, but they're hard to get in. For that kind of money, they want the best of the best for articles or stories.

There are lots of magazines out there that like to work with young writers. In fact, several of the children's magazines like Cricket, Spider and Highlights, will look at work by a young adult OVER an older person.

Will you earn enough money? Depends on what you consider "enough." There are a lot of people who earn $30,000 to $100,000 every year doing nothing but writing. But it's HARD work, to come up with the ideas, talk with experts, write, rewrite and submit constantly. But if you're a good writer---if you pay attention to your grammar, composition, punctuation, spelling and such---you might be one of them. Remember that magazines and publishers only want the best, so you can't afford to submit something with errors. "Editors" aren't there to correct a writer's mistakes. They're there to improve something that's already top notch. Sloppy work will get your story rejected, no matter how interesting the topic.

Hope that helps a little. Good luck, and work hard to build up your writing skills. :)

Cathy