How much do book authors make? And is it hard to get published?

Answer 1

A typical author gets 10-15% of the cover price of the book. This would be royalties. Most authors get an advance when they submit their book to the publishers and if the advance is more than the total royalties they earn they get to keep the difference. A typical advance for starting authors is typically around a thousand dollars.

So do the math. If your books don't sell great, you'll probably have to convince a publisher to print dozens of them to make a halfway decent salary. If you can get half a million orders for your book before it even sells (like Rowling has with her most recent work), then you're going to be making serious bank.

The number of authors who make a living compared to the total number of authors, however, is probably similar to the number of athletes who make a living compared to the total number of athletes. It's POSSIBLE. Just don't hold your breath, as it were.

Answer 2

Not to disappoint you but only between 5 and 10 % of authors make a living at it. And yes, it is very hard to get published. Pax - C.

Answer 3

they make royalties from how many of their books are sold and some goes to the store and some goes to the publisher and some goes to the editor and some goes to the illustrator(if there is one) and the author gets the rest. yes, i hear it is usually quite difficult to be published, many very popular authors of today were rejected 20 + times before ethey were accepted.

Answer 4

I know an author of romance novels (Harlequin-type) and she makes $600 per book. It took her about 3 years to get her first book accepted, but she has a deal for five books. After that she may be able to negotiate a new deal.

Answer 5

1. Not nearly as much as you think they do. Very few authors are ever able to suppert themselves solety through writing.

2. YES.