# Do You Really Have What it Takes?



## Philip Overby (Aug 11, 2012)

These may be a questions you ask yourself as a writer sometimes.  Can I  write all day long, even if it sucks?  Can I figure out my target audience?  Will my writing style sell?  What differentiates me from thousands of other writers?  Can I truly be a professional writer?  

That's why we're all here, I assume.  To get support and flourish as writers.  However, like most jobs, are all of us cut out to be writers?  

I was told before I started teaching that it's not simply a job.  It's a "calling."  Meaning you can either do it or you can't.  I feel like writing, or creating art in any form, is just that.  A calling.  But it's a calling that's unique in that it's really up to the person on whether they make it or not.

Will we all become multi-time best-selling, millionaire authors?  Reality check:  no.  But can we all be successful and widely published?  Yes.  

The main quality I see over and over again is this:  persistence.  You don't have to be a great writer, hey, you don't even have to be good to get published.  Just write, write, write.  Submit, submit, submit.  I one-hundred percent guarantee you that someone, somewhere, will publish your writing.  Talent only gets you so far.  There are tons and tons of great writers out there in the world, but have you read them?  No, because they're too afraid to be persistent and commit to their writing.  Does this sound familiar?  It does for me!

Confidence is a strange thing.  If we have too much confidence, we get knocked down off our pedestal.  If we have too little, then we never make the leap of faith.  Temper your confidence.  Make it your shield.  Beat back your enemies (doubt, fear, self-loathing) with it.  Take all the small victories you can manage.  Your shield may be battered and bruised after rejections, near-misses, writer's block, and whatever other projectiles are slung at you, but don't let it fail you.

If you are rejected as a writer, it will not kill you.  Will it dishearten you?  Sure.  Just say, "Well, that didn't work" and try again.  Think of yourself as an inventor.  The first idea you come up with isn't always going to be your winner.  Thomas Edison probably had tons of crappy ideas before he started coming up with awesome stuff.  So even if your novel isn't the shining vision you hoped it be (after the 1st draft) then you need to tinker with it some more.  Editing is your friend.  

So do you have what it takes?  If you're here at Mythic Scribes, you obviously care about your craft.  So yes, you have what it takes.  It's just up to you if you want to be another great undiscovered writer, languishing at your overcrowded desk, or if you want to be another great discovered writer, languishing at your overcrowded desk.  

This has been a Phil the Drill pep talk.


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## Zero Angel (Aug 11, 2012)

I love writing more than anything other than my fiancee and the stories that I am privileged to write themselves. If I could, I would be writing all of the time.

That being said, I do not write anywhere near the amount that I want to, and the reason I don't is because I work two other jobs where the only thing that is part-time is the pay. I say other, because I think of promoting my book, writing, and working on my websites is a third job that I just cannot in good conscience work at as much as I like because the pay is so terrible (for now). 

I feel like it is a Catch-22 I am in. If I was able to find the time to write full-time, then I would be able to find the money to write full-time, but since in order to have the time to write full-time, I need money to be able to pay bills, I have to work and no longer have the time to write full-time. 

It reminds me of a sci-fi novel I was reading the other day where basically, in order to produce anti-grav technology, they had to have anti-grav technology.


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## Feo Takahari (Aug 12, 2012)

It's all in how you define "undiscovered". Sometimes, just one "That was really good" or "Continue this story, PLEASE!" is enough. (Personally, I consider myself to already have been successful, even though I have no works published offline.)


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## Lorna (Aug 12, 2012)

That writing is a calling I agree one hundred percent. I was reading an article the other day that said writers are people that even if jettisoned on a desert island with nothing but a few fruit trees and a solar powered lap top they would still write, in spite of never having an audience because that's what writers do. Those stories have got to be discovered and lived and written down! 

I'm currently in a position where I can write from dawn to dusk. I moved back in with my parents and sold my horse and my car so I could live off the savings because I couldn't stand working a 60 hour week for peanuts anymore and I was pining to do something creative. (After graduating with an MA in Philosophy I ended up working with horses...) So I'm at my computer at 7am and I stay there until 8-9pm with a break to go for a walk  / bike ride in the afternoon. It's awesome. I could live like this for the rest of my life. Somebody give me a book deal! 

As to whether I know my audience... to be honest I don't think it's possible to pin point an audience. An audience doesn't know what they want until they read a book. I vaguely know what I enjoy but I often surprise myself by being disappointed by something I thought I'd like or reading something out of genre I never thought I'd pick up in a million years that blows me away. 

Will my writing style sell... before I came to this forum probably not- too obscure / poetic in a bad way but I'm working on that. 

I'm hoping my ability to mix mythic figures with a modern context and touch of black humour, combined with ideas based on my philosophy background will make my work stand out. I've got writing group friends / poets who recognise my work from a couple of lines. I think that's a good start. 

*By the time I'm forty (10 years) I am going to be a professional writer. *


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## Philip Overby (Aug 12, 2012)

Lorna, you have an extraordinary situation in that you can write all day.  That's awesome that you take advantage of it.  From reading some of your work, I think it's only a matter of time before you achieve your dream.  Finish what you're working on and send it out!


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Aug 12, 2012)

I vote that we rename him "Phil the Drill Sergeant."


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## T.Allen.Smith (Aug 12, 2012)

I read somewhere that persistence is the one quality that guarantees success. For the most part I think that's true.

I also like this quote by Sidney Smith - "A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage."

It fits in line with what Phil is saying. You have to have courage to stare your doubt down and make it your b****h. Doubt can be an ally, he's just not a willing ally. You have to prove to him that you're the stronger willed combatant.




			
				Lorna said:
			
		

> As to whether I know my audience... to be honest I don't think it's possible to pin point an audience. An audience doesn't know what they want until they read a book.



I believe that it's easy to know your audience. It's the same person at your keyboard every day. If you write a story that you'd want to read, then chances are others will like it as well. After all, there are others out there in this great big world like you, correct?


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Aug 12, 2012)

T.Allen.Smith said:


> I read somewhere that persistence is the one quality that guarantees success. For the most part I think that's true.



Nothing _guarantees_ success; it's possible to persist for your whole life and never meet any substantial success. But without persistence, you will certainly never succeed[SUP]1[/SUP].

To put it another way: persistence is a necessary but not sufficient condition for success.

[SUP]1[/SUP] There is the occasional first-time-blind-luck success story, but they are vanishingly rare compared to the number of attempts, and so it is never wise to expect that you can succeed wildly on your first try. Anyone with the faintest grasp of statistics should be aware that if their first attempt doesn't succeed, they are in the same boat as 99.999% of everyone.


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## Philip Overby (Aug 12, 2012)

Benjamin Clayborne said:


> Nothing _guarantees_ success; it's possible to persist for your whole life and never meet any substantial success. But without persistence, you will certainly never succeed[SUP]1[/SUP].
> 
> To put it another way: persistence is a necessary but not sufficient condition for success.
> 
> [SUP]1[/SUP] There is the occasional first-time-blind-luck success story, but they are vanishingly rare compared to the number of attempts, and so it is never wise to expect that you can succeed wildly on your first try. Anyone with the faintest grasp of statistics should be aware that if their first attempt doesn't succeed, they are in the same boat as 99.999% of everyone.



I think what you say is true to a degree.  Nothing truly guarantees success.  But I'd bet money if someone was actively writing for 10-15 years and cranking out lots and lots of fiction, they're bound to get somewhere with it.  Everyone determines success in different ways, obviously.  For instance, if I play darts, I'm not very good at it.  But if I stand at that dart board 4 hours a day for 10 years, I'm bound to hit the bullseye eventually.  

I think the general feeling among some writers now is that want instant success, instant celebrity, an instant fan-base.  In that case, your foot note is apt in that it happens sometimes.  However, that's not going to happen with most of us.  We have to be happy with our piece of the pie and our audience that we get.  And you can only really achieve that by being persistent.

And yes, you can change my name to Phil the Drill Sergeant.


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## T.Allen.Smith (Aug 12, 2012)

Benjamin Clayborne said:
			
		

> Nothing guarantees success; it's possible to persist for your whole life and never meet any substantial success. But without persistence, you will certainly never succeed[SUP]1[/SUP].
> 
> To put it another way: persistence is a necessary but not sufficient condition for success.
> 
> [SUP]1[/SUP] There is the occasional first-time-blind-luck success story, but they are vanishingly rare compared to the number of attempts, and so it is never wise to expect that you can succeed wildly on your first try. Anyone with the faintest grasp of statistics should be aware that if their first attempt doesn't succeed, they are in the same boat as 99.999% of everyone.



I would agree with that, which is why I said "For the most part..."

Persistence is an essential component but other factors like talent, imagination, marketing savvy, etc. will all play a role. Let's not forget about good ol' fashioned luck either. No one knows why some of these authors are runaway successes. If they did then they'd be enjoying the same stardom.


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## Penpilot (Aug 12, 2012)

According to Wikipedia, Emily Dickenson published fewer than a dozen of her eighteen hundred poems in her lifetime. She had her reasons, but it's still a shame. So let this be a lesson, don't be a Dickenson. Send your [email protected]! out.


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## morfiction (Aug 12, 2012)

Phil the Drill said:


> These may be a questions you ask yourself as a writer sometimes.  Can I  write all day long, even if it sucks?



No. 



> Can I figure out my target audience?



No, I haven't yet. 



> Will my writing style sell?  What differentiates me from thousands of other writers?  Can I truly be a professional writer?



I don't know / I am not published and haven't written a bazillion books. / I doubt it. 



> That's why we're all here, I assume.  To get support and flourish as writers.  However, like most jobs, are all of us cut out to be writers?



Not me after answering your questions directly.


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## Svrtnsse (Aug 12, 2012)

I'm pretty sure I have what it takes to be a successful professional author. However, I'm less sure I have what it takes to become one. That isn't going to stop me from trying and it's not going to stop me from enjoying myself while I'm at it.


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## ShortHair (Aug 12, 2012)

If you listen to celebrities, people who have made it big in sports or music or acting or whatever, you find three common traits. They have always wanted to do what they're doing. They never stop practicing. They will give up almost anything else to become successful.

If you want to become a successful writer, take heed. You have to want to be a writer, not just want it, WANT IT. You have to practice constantly. You have to make hard choices.


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## The Dark One (Aug 13, 2012)

ShortHair said:


> If you want to become a successful writer, take heed. You have to want to be a writer, not just want it, WANT IT. You have to practice constantly. You have to make hard choices.



Bang on. The main choice being to spend a great deal of time by yourself because writing is a solitary activity. In order to endure that level of solitary existence you must DESPERATELY want to be a successful writer more than you want a whole bunch of other things.

What makes it even harder is the knowledge that so few people make it. Maybe 1 in a 1000 writers are picked up by commercial publishers and only 1 in a 1000 of those writers will make a decent living out of it. That means you have to be the 1 in a million...of all those people who actually get it together to finish a novel (realistically, several novels).

Do you have that level of self belief? 

To make it a little easier...what level of success will make you happy? If you just want to write for a hobby and try to gradually improve your art - just finishing a novel that gives you satisfaction is success.

If you crave an audience then you need to be published, and let's say that commercial publication or selling (say) 3000 copies of a self-published book is more-or-less the same thing. Would you be happy to know that 3000 people had bought your book?

That's actually a really long way down the road to successful authordom and takes a huge amount of talent, dedication and time. For just 3000 copies.

The good thing is occasionally trying to remember where you were when you first started. The mountain looks awfully huge when you first start to climb it - just finishing a novel seemed like a pipe dream 20 years ago - but looking back now I can see how far I've come.

If I had known, 20 years ago, that I would make it to where I am now (publishing wise) I would have been both delighted and disappointed. Delighted to know that I would have done things like have a paperback on the shelves which was reasonably popular, been interviewed for print and radio on numerous occasions, and most importantly, to have found my natural voice as a writer. Disappointed not to have written a million seller.

Now, I am just delighted...because I've learned how hard it is.


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## Dan (Aug 13, 2012)

I probably won't make it big, for the simple reason that it isn't my ultimate goal. I just want to have fun being creative.

I do occasionally think 'Hey! When I finish this book perhaps I can self-publish and sell some copies' - It's nice to dream sometimes, but if I don't then I won't be disappointed. I'll just move on to other things.

My opinion on finding a target market, writing stories that you think will appeal to other is great IF your only goal is to sell your work. If not then it's really ruining what being creative is all about - Expressing YOUR ideas, your creative talents.. your views on the world. 

Sure you may write about a pink pony who battles an evil carrot, and people may not like it, but if you've had fun writing it then I'd call that a success. And who knows, perhaps that feeling of 'Yes, I did it!' may rival being on the best-seller list.


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## Graylorne (Aug 13, 2012)

> If you crave an audience then you need to be published, and let's say that commercial publication or selling (say) 3000 copies of a self-published book is more-or-less the same thing. Would you be happy to know that 3000 people had bought your book?



If it were in Dutch? Deliriously happy. That's about the turnover of a major genre author over here and the first printing at a large publisher (mine was a lot smaller; a lot). We're a small market 

It's (nearly) impossible to be succesful as a genre writer in the Netherlands. So I try to write decent books, keep my publisher happy and try to grow in the art. I'm writing every day, even if only a bit. And I'm translating my work to enlarge my markets. My main work will go via my publisher, but I'm thinking of making the Scarfar Saga (now here on Showcase) a self-published e-book.
So, yes, I want to be succesful. For the rest, time will tell.


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## Endymion (Aug 13, 2012)

Dan said:


> Sure you may write about a pink pony who battles an evil carrot, and people may not like it, but if you've had fun writing it then I'd call that a success. And who knows, perhaps that feeling of 'Yes, I did it!' may rival being on the best-seller list.



Thats what I always say to myself!
Though that feeling might not help you pay your rent if you want to write for your living.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Aug 13, 2012)

The Dark One said:


> Bang on. The main choice being to spend a great deal of time by yourself because writing is a solitary activity. In order to endure that level of solitary existence you must DESPERATELY want to be a successful writer more than you want a whole bunch of other things.



Lucky me, I love solitude. 



> What makes it even harder is the knowledge that so few people make it. Maybe 1 in a 1000 writers are picked up by commercial publishers and only 1 in a 1000 of those writers will make a decent living out of it. That means you have to be the 1 in a million...of all those people who actually get it together to finish a novel (realistically, several novels).



That implies that there's a maximum of about 7,000 people worldwide who make a living writing novels. I think the number is probably significantly higher than that.


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## Steerpike (Aug 13, 2012)

Dean Wesley Smith, whose blog is a lot of fun, has an entry from a couple of years ago about the myth of how few writers earn a living at it:

Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: Only 300 Writers Make a Living |


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## The Dark One (Aug 14, 2012)

Benjamin Clayborne said:


> Lucky me, I love solitude.
> 
> 
> 
> That implies that there's a maximum of about 7,000 people worldwide who make a living writing novels. I think the number is probably significantly higher than that.



I did say a _decent_ living. In fact, 7,000 is probably very accurate.

In Australia, I reckon there'd be maybe a hundred writers making a decent living, and Australia is (I think) the 13th biggest economy in the world.

Obviously there're plenty of writers making money (including me) but nowhere near enough to live on.


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## Zero Angel (Aug 14, 2012)

I have heard that it is easier to become a professional athlete than a successful author. 

I'm going to keep writing and producing until I get some of that magick bakery action mentioned in the article Steerpike linked and hope that I can quit my day job (but keep my online jobs =P)


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Aug 14, 2012)

Zero Angel said:


> I have heard that it is easier to become a professional athlete than a successful author.



Hm, really? Maybe back in the days of publisher-gatekeepers controlling everything that was true; but now, with hard work (and talent and luck) you can self-publish your way to success.

But with athletics, it's virtually impossible to... self-athletize (wtf, am I just making up words now?) since you've got to get involved in some kind of existing league. Plus there's the fact that in virtually all athletic arenas, you have a very limited time to succeed before your body gets old and decrepit. Writing can be done for a far longer period. There's also the fact that in athletics, you have to defeat someone else; in writing, you just need to find a niche.

I mean, they're both really difficult, I just think that writing is probably a marginally easier path to success than athletics.


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## Zero Angel (Aug 14, 2012)

Yeah, I don't really know which I agree with, but I believe the source of that factoid was the following:

Amazon.com: Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book (9781568601427): Dan Poynter: Books

...although I don't remember it having that cover...


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## Chilari (Aug 14, 2012)

Hey Phil I'd just like to say thanks for posting this pep talk. It's helped me get my creative juices flowing again.


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## The Dark One (Aug 15, 2012)

Benjamin Clayborne said:


> Hm, really? Maybe back in the days of publisher-gatekeepers controlling everything that was true; but now, with hard work (and talent and luck) you can self-publish your way to success.
> 
> But with athletics, it's virtually impossible to... self-athletize (wtf, am I just making up words now?) since you've got to get involved in some kind of existing league. Plus there's the fact that in virtually all athletic arenas, you have a very limited time to succeed before your body gets old and decrepit. Writing can be done for a far longer period. There's also the fact that in athletics, you have to defeat someone else; in writing, you just need to find a niche.
> 
> I mean, they're both really difficult, I just think that writing is probably a marginally easier path to success than athletics.



You're kidding!

If you accept that my (our) estimate of 7000 people making a decent living from writing (novels) is more or less in the ballpark, that is orders of magnitude less than those who make their living as athletes. 

For a start we'll define 'decent' - let's just say it means that writing is your main source of income (and that you live independently of the support of parents or working spouses). If you then estimate the number of people making their living from playing (say) football in (say) England, you've got about 90 league clubs with an average of say 30 footballers each (it's probably more but I'm being conservative). That's 2,700 footballers in one sport in one country. Across the planet, there would be (I guarantee) hundreds of thousands making their living from professional sport.

Then let's look at the comparative skill sets. If you have reasonable co-ordination and a fair bit of determination, you can make it in lots of sports. You just need to put the time in and be competitive (or have competitive parents).

With writing, it doesn't matter how talented you are, how determined you are, there are certain conditions that must be in place to make you successful...and no-one can tell you what they are except in retrospect.

The only factor that can enhance your prospects of success in writing which will not work in sport is money. Publishers can buy success for crap writers but no amount of money can make you a better footballer.


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## Akahige (Aug 15, 2012)

I suppose for my part, I won't know whether I have what it takes until I have or haven't had some success with writing.  Even so, I do enjoy it for its own sake, so that takes the pressure off considerably.


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## CupofJoe (Aug 15, 2012)

I work day by day with a man who is an international recording and performing artist. He has friends, and is played, all over the world and he only ever records what he wants, how he wants, as he wants.
He told me a story about Gary Numan [80s pop star in the UK] who when asked what it was like to sell 2 million albums replied... now I know that 53 million people hate me.
My friend's only advice to me was “Do what you want, not what people tell you will sell”. 
I'm not a writer because I want fame and fortune [and yes I said I was a writer! ]. 
I want to write to see if I can. I want to be proud of every word even if no one else likes it.
I don't really care if I “have what it takes”... who gets to decide?


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Aug 15, 2012)

The Dark One said:


> You're kidding!
> 
> If you accept that my (our) estimate of 7000 people making a decent living from writing (novels) is more or less in the ballpark, that is orders of magnitude less than those who make their living as athletes.



I don't accept that number. In my opinion it's probably off by at least an order of magnitude.


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## danr62 (Aug 15, 2012)

An order of magnitude? Is that an extra zero? A few hundred? 10% of the original estimate?


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## Steerpike (Aug 15, 2012)

danr62 said:


> An order of magnitude? Is that an extra zero? A few hundred? 10% of the original estimate?



It generally scales by a power of ten. So an order of magnitude greater than 7000 would be 70,000.

So to increase by one order of magnitude, multiply by ten. By two orders of magnitude, multiply by 10^2. By _n_ orders of magnitude, by 10^_n_.


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## The Dark One (Aug 16, 2012)

Benjamin Clayborne said:


> I don't accept that number. In my opinion it's probably off by at least an order of magnitude.



So, presuming you don't mean 700,  you reckon there are at least 70,000 novelists in the world making a decent living?

How many titles do you reckon there are in the average bookshop? There's no way every writer with a book in the shops (including me) is making a decent living.


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## Chilari (Aug 16, 2012)

How many authors do you think are in all bookshops, online and offline, in the world? You might not get many books by British authors in American shops and vice versa, but that doesn't mean they're not making a decent living from sales in their own country and online. A large bookshop might contain works by 5,000 authors but that doesn't mean only those authors are making a living; admittedly neither does it guaruntee that all of those authors are making a decent living from writing, but across the globe, the sheer number of books in hundreds of languages and countries must add up to well over 7000 authors making a decent living.

And it depends on how you define "decent living". I would say a decent living would be able to support yourself on the income from writing and writing-related things alone - books sales, talks, articles about writing, workshops etc. How much money you need for that depends on where you live and how you live. I would say for me, personally, at this moment if I was earning Â£25k a year from writing, that'd be a decent living (it's more than I'm earning now). I live in a rural town a long way from London so Â£25k is enough to cover rent for a two bedroom flat, my car costs, taxes, bills and food with a little on the side for modest holidays or emergencies. Â£25 a year at Â£2 a sale (assuming I'm selling for Â£2.99 on Amazon in ebook format and getting 70%) is 12,500 sales a year. I'd certainly call those number successful. Not life changing, sure, if you're looking for numbers of authors who are positively rich from their craft it's certainly a smaller number - 7000 may not be far out for a guess - but making a living isn't the same as being rich from it.


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## The Dark One (Aug 16, 2012)

If you look back over my earlier post, you'll see I defined 'decent' as meaning making their living solely from writing. I didn't say 'rich'. In all honesty, I wouldn't have a clue how many make their living solely from writing novels around the world but I do know it's less than a hundred in Australia...which despite having a small population (22 mill) is an incredibly rich country where everyone can afford to buy books. (There's a lot more than that making some money from writing novels in Australia, but the vast majority of Australian writers need day jobs.) Therefore, if you consider the ratio of 100 out 22 mill and apply it to the rest of the world, it's one full time author for every 220,000 people - or approx 4.5 per million. That brings the total down to 4,500 authors making a decent living throughout the entire world.

I don't mean to be discouraging...

It's the hardest gig there is. Something to be proud of really.


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## Steerpike (Aug 16, 2012)

A post by John Scalzi on the subject generally, as it relates to science fiction authors. Also some interesting commentary at the bottom:

The Full-Time SF Novelist: Probably Not as Endangered as You Think


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## Alva (Aug 17, 2012)

As "Graylorne" already mentioned, in the case of non-English minor languages the markets are even more restricted and the amount of professional full-time writers is pretty much nonexistent at best. I know many Finnish people (not necessarily professionals) who nowadays choose to write in English, usually because they find it easier to share their work that way. Personally I enjoy foreign languages as well but to be honest with myself I'm most attracted towards writing in my native language. (Plus, English vocabulary lacks some words I regard as essential!

Well, although English on the other hand includes some formidable proverbs and ways of expressing things. And hmm, words as well. ; )

I'm no professional writer myself and I'm happy with it at the time being. I study literature and I love writing and I love language but I don't even want to become a full-time author. Actually I'd prefer to have a career that has little to do with actual writing. With language, yes (I'm interested in neuroscience among many other things), but not with the process of writing down stories. After one year off I know I can't concentrate on writing (even fiction) when I have too much free time in my hands. I simply need some kind of a job that keeps me busy day after day thinking something else than plots and characters and mood. After all, writing is my way to gather my thoughts, to simply take it easy and relax. Have time of my own. I take my writing very seriously but I'd only hurt myself and poison my passion if I attempted to cope with the constant stress over income, page counts and deadlines. ": )

And at times it seems I write my best prose when I'm feeling stressed on the other areas of life.


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## Jabrosky (Aug 17, 2012)

Sometimes I question whether I have what it takes to write a single novel, let alone make a whole living off novel-writing. I wonder if the problem lies in a lack of confidence deep down; whenever I write, I worry that I'm going to produce crap that reviewers will tear apart and tell me to rewrite over and over again. Often I see the fundamental flaws in my premises even before I finish the stories, leading me to discontinue them. I wish I could delude myself into overestimating my stories' quality so I could finish them...but then that would only make me even more defensive when someone tears the stories apart.


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## Penpilot (Aug 18, 2012)

Jabrosky said:


> Sometimes I question whether I have what it takes to write a single novel, let alone make a whole living off novel-writing. I wonder if the problem lies in a lack of confidence deep down; whenever I write, I worry that I'm going to produce crap that reviewers will tear apart and tell me to rewrite over and over again. Often I see the fundamental flaws in my premises even before I finish the stories, leading me to discontinue them. I wish I could delude myself into overestimating my stories' quality so I could finish them...but then that would only make me even more defensive when someone tears the stories apart.



When I finish a story, it always has flaws, some of them are huge. But a part of writing is learning how to first identify those flaws, which it seems you can, and second, figure out how to fix them.

Don't worry about producing crap or worry that someone else is going to tear something apart. Why? Because it will happen. Just accept and learn from it. Learn to judge the quality of the critique. Someone who tears your story apart may be doing you a big favor if they're spot on and sincere. They've just told you how to fix your story. On the flipside, great praise is worthless if it's insincere. They're telling you a turd is a piece of chocolate.

The key thing to start with is set a goal for what you want to achieve with the story and strive for that. You may fall short but it doesn't matter. Edit it to the best of your ability and move on. Try again with a different story and repeat. If you keep doing this you'll get better. You'll develop more skills and the stories that end up on paper will get closer and closer to the stories you envision in your head.

One key thing you have that I think is important to all writers is you don't delude yourself. You can see and acknowledge the flaws in your work. Never think the flaws in your work are flaws in yourself. I've met writers who overestimate the quality of what they write, and I know if I take a poke at it they'll get all defensive lock up. I don't think that's a good thing if you want to get better. 

If what you write is [email protected], embrace it as the best you could do at that moment. Then, take it as a challenge to make your next story a little better. If that story is still [email protected], write another one and try to make that a little better. Repeat enough times, things will reach a point where they stop being [email protected] 

The question is are you willing to spread a thousand acres of [email protected] around so you can some day grow a field of roses?


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## Graylorne (Aug 18, 2012)

One of our top fantasy writers (published with a major company) sold 9000 in total... of a trilogy. 

A first edition at a major Dutch publisher with a fantasy section is 2000 - 3000 (I'm with an indy publisher, not even near that number).

When you walk into a bookstore, there are no Dutch writers in stock. Apart from a few stores who are really in the genre. The only names one sees regularly are George Michael, Rowling, Paolini, Twilight (YA dept.), Tolkien ofc, John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice (YA dept.), German writers like Bernhard Hennen and Markus Heitz. All other titles are incidents.

The books department of a large Dutch chain of stores doesn't even sell sf&f any more, exept for the occasional Hit, of course.

The on-line stores like bol.com sell everything, but regular? Nope. 

No, we're not the best market in the world for genre.

It's not for fun only (although that counts too) that I'm self-translating my works


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## The Dark One (Aug 18, 2012)

I was in Holland last year and loved it to bits.

Has anyone cornered the market in a Dutch flavoured spin on SF&F? There was some decades ago a pretty good Danish writer who was big and proud about his heritage...Poul Anderson perhaps?


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## Graylorne (Aug 18, 2012)

The Dark One said:


> I was in Holland last year and loved it to bits.
> 
> Has anyone cornered the market in a Dutch flavoured spin on SF&F? There was some decades ago a pretty good Danish writer who was big and proud about his heritage...Poul Anderson perhaps?



SF is almost non-existent atm. I know of no serious Dutch SF writers, perhaps only Django Mathijsen, who writes short stories. He sold a few to British and US magazines. There isn't any market for SF over here.

In fantasy, the only one that uses Dutch influences is Tais Teng (a pen name), he has a large oeuvre (for adults and children) but nowadays he's more an illustrator that a writer, I believe. There isn't really a market to conquer. Perhaps, if I do my best... I do use Dutch flavoured place names now and then. 

Btw: Paul Anderson was of Danish descent, but Born in the USA. I'm re-reading some of his books right now, for my Scarfar project.


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