Get Rich Writing Fiction:

How realistic is it really?

Do you think you'll get rich writing fiction? Are you writing fiction just to get rich?

(Or is it for the fame and the adulation?)

Well, if so, you need a reality check, and this is what I’m giving you here.

I’m sorry to be harsh, but it’s far better for you to get real now, than to waste a year or more of your life writing this novel that you think is going to bring you this fame and fortune.

The reality is that very few people get rich writing fiction. Indeed, very few even make a full-time living as fiction writers. I mean, very few.

I don’t know for sure of course, but I’d say that if it’s fortune you’re after, you’d be better off doing this: take the hours you would otherwise spend writing and instead get a second job. Spend the second salary on lottery tickets. You’d probably be more likely to become rich that way.

Like everything else in life, writing success fits into a triangular shape.

The very few at the top are making serious money, the huge number at the bottom are making hardly any money, and the many in the middle (the mid-list authors) are making some money but, in most cases, not enough to keep themselves.

I’ve had three novels published in my native Ireland. Two of them were bestsellers, and the third did well too (just didn’t get into the top ten). And yet I am nowhere near making a living from my writing.

As one writing friend said to me, “Think of all the writers we know. They all have day jobs, and/or wage-earning spouses”. And it’s so true.

So, if you want to be a fiction writer for the money, think again. It could happen for you, and I sincerely hope it does. But I don’t think you should depend on it.

So much for the riches. What about the fame?

Well, fewer authors still are famous. Think of writers you know by name, and compare this to the number of, say, film stars you know of. I’d say the writers are in the minority.

Now, think how many of those writers you would recognise in the street, compared to how many of the film stars you'd recognise. Again, there wouldn’t be many writers, would there?

Certainly my face has never been recognised, although my name is recognised sometimes. (Mind you, that’s good, in my opinion. I still have my privacy.)

So, scratch fame and fortune.

Why would you do it then?

I’ve often asked myself the same question, and the only answer I can come up with is this (apologies in advance if it’s cheesy): I write because I have to. Writing feeds my soul.

Another writer friend, who has just landed herself an agent, says that she just knows that she is a writer, to the very tips of her fingernails.

It’s just something you have to do, that’s all. The thing is that, as aggravating and challenging and difficult as writing can be (although EFT - Emotional Freedom Technique - surely makes it easier, as you’ll see on the rest of this website), I’m at my happiest when I’m writing. I feel somehow diminished when I don’t write.

If this, or something similar, is true for you, then you’re meant to be a writer. Quite simply, if writing is something you just have to do - then you're meant to be a writer, and the rest of the information and writers' resources on this website are definitely for you.

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