“For those who are not writers (and many of those who are), there is an illusory "made it" point, the point at which the writer no longer has to worry about money. It doesn't exist unless you were born someone who didn't ever have to worry about it.”— Alexander Chee, amazon.comTagged: Books, Money, Writers, Writers and money
“In almost every other profession, people have a pretty good idea of what others are making, and I think, in writing, among the people I know, people have no idea. And the difference between people who do very well and people who are just getting by is a big range.”— Susan Orlean, amazon.comTagged: Books, Money, Writers, Writers and money
“For each person it can be a different financial arrangement. For a long time [at the New Yorker] I did what many writers do, which is agree in the beginning of the year to do a certain number of pieces, and then that amount was paid out to me over the year -- the aggregate of all of that. So I would…”— Susan Orlean, amazon.comTagged: Books, Money, Writers, Writers and money
“The reality is, more and more and more, being a writer is running your own business. While I've had salaries, and I've been an employee, overall and ultimately and certainly increasingly so, being a writer is running a small business.”— Susan Orlean, amazon.comTagged: Books, Money, Writers, Writers and money
“Money taints everything, why not writing too?”— Colin Dickey, amazon.comTagged: Books, Money, Writers, Writers and money
“I have gone to post-book deal hell and all I got was this serious debt. But it's an okay place to be, there are no surprises in debt.”— Porochista Khakpour, amazon.comTagged: Books, Money, Writers, Writers and money
“I turn the novel in. I go out to a celebration dinner with a very normal guy I have somehow fallen into dating. I pick at a whole fish and order dessert. I make bathroom visits devoted solely to dropping benzodiazepine crumbs under my tongue, licking any residue off my finger. The novel made it, but…”— Porochista Khakpour, amazon.comTagged: Books, Money, Writers, Writers and money, Before and after
“It was like, my book is on the New York Times bestseller list right now and we do not have any money in our checking account.”— Cheryl Strayed, amazon.comTagged: Books, Money, Writers, Writers and money
“So I sold my book for $100,000, and what I received was a check for about $21,000 a year over the course of four years, and I paid a third of that to the IRS. Don't get me wrong, the book deal helped a lot -- it was like getting a grant every year for four years. But it wasn't enough to live off.”— Cheryl Strayed, amazon.comTagged: Books, Money, Writers, Writers and money
“I had accrued $50,000 in credit card debt to write that book. The same thing happened later with 'Wild', only I was in deeper debt. So I got that check for 'Torch', and it was gone the next day. I actually paid my credit card bill. Poof!”— Cheryl Strayed, amazon.comTagged: Books, Money, Writers, Writers and money, Quote of the Moment
“I feel strongly that we're only hurting ourselves as writers by being so secretive about money. There's no other job in the world where you get your master's degree in that field and you're like, 'Well, I might make zero or I might make $5 million!'”— Cheryl Strayed, amazon.comTagged: Books, Money, Writers, Writers and money
“Writing for free looked like work. It felt like work. But it was the illusion of work, a fun house mirror reflection.”— Nina Maclaughlin, amazon.comTagged: Books, Money, Writers, Writers and money, Quote of the Moment
“The dreamy writer's life I had envisioned in graduate school, crafted by borrowing my more experienced classmates' lofty expectations as well as my tuition funds, seemed inevitable. Six months later, my novel had been rejected by what seemed like every editor in New York City, I was being paid less…”— Julia Fierro, amazon.comTagged: Books, Money, Writers, Writers and money, Quote of the Moment
“Today, I own approximately three thousand books. I have gone into debt buying books and made poor financial choices, again and again, for the love of books -- buying a stack of glossy-covered novels instead of paying off bills, binge-ordering a dozen buzzed-about novels online instead of putting mon…”— Julia Fierro, amazon.comTagged: Books, Money, Writers, Writers and money