You earn HOW MUCH?

In December last year, R J Ellory posted on the reality of the Fiction Publishing Business and how much most authors earn from their hard work and emotional investment.
http://rjellory.blogspot.com/2007/12/some-surprising-facts-and-figures.html

It is not for the faint-hearted. Some key take-aways?

*Only 2 out of 10 books published make a profit for the publisher

*In 2004, 950,000 titles out of the 1.2 million tracked by Nielsen Bookscan sold fewer than 99 copies.

*The average book in America sells about 500 copies. In the UK it is significantly less.

*The average income of a published author is in the region of £7,000 per year.

For Romance authors some of this data is already familiar through the online communities and sites such as this: http://www.brendahiatt.com/id2.html

The harsh reality is that the ability of an author to support themselves through their writing truly does depend on both;

*their productivity [ more titles = more potential income as their brand becomes established] and

*their ability to stick their heads out, above the 1000s of the other titles published and get noticed. Quality. Content. Visibility. Presence.

In other words, hard work. And then harder work. Day after day.

But you already knew that. Because you are a professional.