{"id":19,"date":"2009-09-13T11:29:53","date_gmt":"2009-09-13T16:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/?p=19"},"modified":"2009-09-13T22:23:15","modified_gmt":"2009-09-14T03:23:15","slug":"book-advances-how-much-money-do-writers-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/2009\/09\/13\/book-advances-how-much-money-do-writers-make\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Advances — How Much Money Do Writers Make?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A $100,000 book advance sounds nice, doesn’t it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That sounds like enough money to quit your day job, spend a few hours writing each day, and then using the remainder of your time talking about creative things — with creative friends — over coffee or tea the rest of the day.<\/p>\n

Right?<\/p>\n

Wrong…<\/p>\n

I recently read an article in the New York Times<\/em> about book advances<\/a>. In the article, it mentions that Dave Eggers received a $100,000 advance that put just $39,567.68 in his pocket.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If it takes several years to write and sell your own work of staggering genius, when you break that sum down over three years, it’s a nice supplemental income, but not enough to support most people.<\/p>\n

The average book advance is much less<\/em> than $100,000, leaving most writers with enough money for Web hosting and supplies, maybe attending a writer’s conference, and a nice, celebratory meal.<\/p>\n

Most writers have a day job for a reason.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The trick is to find happiness and order in juggling your day job with writing regularly and enjoying life.<\/p>\n

Odds are the $100,000 advance will never come your way.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But if you’re realistic about it from the start and find a good balance along the way, you’re more likely to write on a regular basis and increase your chances of finally making it.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A $100,000 book advance sounds nice, doesn’t it? That sounds like enough money to quit your day job, spend a few hours writing each day, and then using the remainder of your time talking about creative things — with creative friends — over coffee or tea the rest of the day. Right? Wrong… I recently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[9,56],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}