Making Money as a Writer

“Writing is a thing you can do if you like it! It’s a thing you might get paid for, now and again, if you’re good at it! But it’s not a job.” (Er…??)

Before today’s post, I’m sorry to have to share the upsetting news that Don DeGrazia, author of the novel American Skin and much loved Columbia College Chicago professor, died suddenly on June 13. He was one of the most generous and funniest people I knew and helped so many writers as teacher, friend, and reader. You can read one of Don’s recent short stories, “Sweet Nutcracker” (published in Hypertext Magazine), here.

If you’re in the Chicago area, a memorial visitation will be held for family and friends at Simkins Funeral Home, 6251 Dempster St., Morton Grove, Saturday, June 22 from 1:00 p.m. until time of service at 3:00 p.m.

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Some of my earliest posts for this newsletter were focused on practical matters related to the writing life: where to apply for artist residencies, how to produce your own audio book, how to write a literary agent query letter, among others.

Shadowing each of these topics is money, specifically, earning a living, or part of one’s living, as a writer. Despite writing committedly for many years, I’ve not at any point lived solely on income earned from my published work, whether it was in literary magazines or in the form of novels and short story collections, or the short fiction anthology I edited, Love in the Time of Time’s Up.

Most writers have other jobs—as did Dickens, Nabokov, and Kafka, Ester Bloom reminds us, former editor of the now-defunct The Billfold (for which I wrote an essay, “Publish a Book and Change Your Life, or, Well, Maybe Not,” in 2015—no longer available online, from what I can tell, as the site seems to have been…pickpocketed).

I’m friends with a few writers who have made enough money from their books to live on those earnings. Along with bestsellers in the U.S., their titles have been published in numerous foreign countries, with their books becoming bestsellers in many of these foreign markets too.

In some cases, their books have also been adapted for the screen, which used to yield a large payday for writers. It still can, but not as reliably as a film (or TV) adaptation used to, due in part to the changes in Hollywood’s production and distribution modalities (about which Daniel Bessner wrote a cover story for the May issue of Harper’s).

A number of other writers I know who have done well but have not made life-changing money work as teachers, professors, or attorneys. All this is to say, most writers do other work to pay the bills besides write.

I was struck by something else Bloom wrote in The Billfold article mentioned above (later republished on Medium.com):

Novelists have day jobs! Roxane Gay, who is busy and accomplished enough to be several people, still has a day job. Writers have day jobs because being a writer isn’t a job. Writing is a thing you can do if you like it! It’s a thing you might get paid for, now and again, if you’re good at it! But it’s not a job.

You can write as part of your job, of course. Largely that will mean doing the kind of un-fun, unsexy kind of arranging words that pays the bills: content marketing, for example, or corporate communications.

If I’m interpreting the above correctly, Bloom’s view is that writing memoirs, essays, poems, or fiction isn’t a job. Implicit is that a writer’s legitimacy is tied directly to their ability to earn a living from their writing.

What seems to me a fairer take: if you’re a writer, you probably have another job, i.e. writing is one of your jobs, and something else you do for money is another job, whether it earns you more, less, or the same as you earn as a writer.

If Nabokov, Kafka, and Dickens were alive today, it’s probable they could live on what their books earn. I could be mistaken, but I think Dickens did eventually achieve a level of notoriety and financial success with his writing and live appearances that allowed him to live off these earnings later in life. 

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This Sunday, June 23, 2 PM PT/5 PM ET, for monthly and annual subscribers, I’m hosting a Bookish Office Hour/AMA-L (Ask Me Anything-Literary) Zoom meet-up. Please RSVP by replying to this email.

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- In my own case, since 2003, when I left the office job I had at the School of the Art Institute for the five years directly after graduate school, I’ve taught undergraduate and graduate writing courses for several universities (presently Northwestern University and Stanford Continuing Studies). I’ve published seven books, the advances ranging from $50 to $50,000 (before taxes, agent’s fees, and related expenses including publicity, travel, and other promotional expenses, which were all considerable.)

- Along with this Substack (170 paying subscribers), I’ve written a number of articles and reviews and published short stories and poems that I’ve been paid $25 - $2,000 for, depending on the publication.

- My first four books yielded about a dozen invitations to give readings and/or craft talks at universities, which included honoraria. These ranged from $200 - $3,100.

- I’ve taught for libraries, writers’ conferences, and for community writers groups and earned honoraria for some of those jobs too, e.g. $100 for a one-time craft talk to $2,000 for a multi-week class.

Some of the best paid writers—who might or might not be good teachers, and in some cases have only published one or two books (often they’re hired based on their notoriety)—ask for fees as high $20,000 to teach a 4- or 5-day workshop at a writers’ conference. Others are paid $15,000 for a one-day campus visit and craft lecture. If you knew a university or arts organization could pay you that much, I suppose more writers would ask for these sizable sums.

I have mixed feelings about this. In some parts of the country, adjuncts—some of whom doubtless have much more teaching experience than many of the well remunerated writers referenced above—are lucky to earn $2,500-$3,000 to teach a 10- or 15-week college writing class.

When you have a bestselling book or your work is suddenly given a lot of attention for one reason or another, these large fees are a major perk. I have more to say about this topic but will save it for a less public forum. 😳

- Over the years, I’ve also spoken to a few book clubs, one of which treated me to a nice meal and paid me $150 each of the three times I spoke with them (thank you Nancy, Robin, and the other kind members of this north suburban Illinois book group).

- I also work from time to time as a freelance editor, providing notes on other writers’ stories, essays, novel and short story manuscripts. In the last decade or so, the fees I’ve earned for these jobs have ranged from $35 - $1,800.

- I’ve won some book prizes that included a monetary award. These ranged from $100 - $2,500.

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Where to find writing-related job listings:

- Publishers’ Marketplace (weekday free subscription lists jobs in the publishing industry): http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/lunch/subscribe.html

- Publishers’ Marketplace job board: https://www.publishersmarketplace.com/jobs/

- Indeed - https://www.indeed.com - (Career site that allows you to search for jobs with key words and by location)

- Associated Writers and Writing Programs’ (AWP) job list (requires subscription): https://www.awpwriter.org/careers/job_list

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Erika Dreifus

’s ongoing list: https://www.erikadreifus.com/resources/jobs/

- You can also, needless to say, do a Google search for “creative writing jobs” - often they will be tailored to your geographical area.

Seen recently on Instagram: @theshinysquirrel