{"id":22019,"date":"2014-01-22T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2014-01-22T13:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=22019"},"modified":"2014-01-22T07:50:03","modified_gmt":"2014-01-22T12:50:03","slug":"something-something-blah-blah-author-income-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2014\/01\/22\/something-something-blah-blah-author-income-survey\/","title":{"rendered":"Something-Something Blah-Blah Author Income Survey"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not so sure about this survey<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Or, rather, I’m not so sure about the portioned and parceled bits of said survey, because to buy the actual results you’d need $300 — and given that the report clearly states most writers earn under $1000 a year, they’re asking most authors to give up 30% of their salary to read the report. (Which suggests it’s not for or about authors at all, but rather for and about big publishers.)<\/p>\n

Quite a few reasons I am dubious about that result — that “authors” are basically broke-ass degenerates and that the author career is one where hunger is answered by generic-brand Cheetos and thirst is quenched from bottles filled with your own tears.<\/p>\n

How do you define “author?” Already a loaded word. (A little pretentious, too.)<\/p>\n

Are these all professional authors? And only by self-selection?<\/p>\n

What if you have one book out? What if you had one book out three years ago? Or ten?<\/p>\n

Is this a salary based purely on earnings? Are losses figured in?<\/p>\n

The survey has 65% of the answerers as “aspiring author,”<\/strong><\/span><\/a> which suggests that 65% of the survey-takers listed\u00a0zero dollars<\/strong> as income (which might, ohh, I dunno, skew the results).<\/p>\n

If those folks were taken out of the pool, that leaves about 3000 folks providing monetary data.<\/p>\n

(Edit: okay, it looks like “aspiring author” is still figured into the monetary equation<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.)<\/p>\n

(Which is pretty fuckin’ wonky — aka, “fwonky.”)<\/p>\n

What if I make money as a writer of other things besides books?<\/p>\n

Are these part-time authors? Full-time authors? Professional hobbyists?<\/p>\n

Would one short story sale count?<\/p>\n

The survey also seems, as has been pointed out, to try to compare the very different career (and financial) paths of self- and traditional-publishing in a way that isn’t perhaps equitable. And so it’s skewed against self-publishing, likely unfairly.<\/p>\n

The thing is, I do understand that writing is not the HERE’S HOW YOU GET RICH IMMEDIATELY career. But the results of this survey suggest it’s the THIS IS ALMOST NEVER HOW YOU EARN A LIVING career, which is horseshit. If this survey were accurate, it would not only mean that a writing career is a tough row to hoe but also that it’s basically the worst idea ever from a financial standpoint. It suggests that book culture is damaged because those who help to create it cannot subsist. It suggests that both traditional- and self-publishing is punishing and oppressive.<\/p>\n

I don’t buy it.<\/p>\n

But, what the fuck do I know? I’m privileged. I know I’m privileged. The money I make from writing is comfortable. Maybe the bottom will fall out on me, who knows?<\/p>\n

Just the same, I’m pondering —<\/p>\n

Maybe I’ll do a survey.<\/p>\n

Something informal, but something whose data will be here for all to see.<\/p>\n

I have an audience reach at least as big as the authors sampled by the DBW survey (especially if you take out the 65% of “aspiring authors”).<\/p>\n

Would that be a thing that interests you?<\/p>\n

What questions would you like to see posed? What rigors placed on the data?<\/p>\n

How to answer? Publicly, here in the comments? Online survey? Email to me?<\/p>\n

Would it offer you any value at all or be worthless?<\/p>\n

(For the record, if I do such a thing it still won’t be a complete picture — maybe it won’t even be that meaningful. As such, I would never charge money for the results.)<\/p>\n

Toss your thoughts on the survey above — and the potential survey — in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not so sure about this survey. Or, rather, I’m not so sure about the portioned and parceled bits of said survey, because to buy the actual results you’d need $300 — and given that the report clearly states most writers earn under $1000 a year, they’re asking most authors to give up 30% of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-theramble","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pv7MR-5J9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22019"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22027,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22019\/revisions\/22027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}