Author Yearly Income, and First Author Advances

With my other worries involved in trying to write a first novel I sometimes try to picture what would happen if I actually did sell a manuscript. What kind of windfall could I expect? Will I be able to make the bills and mortgage payment, so I could quit my day job? Or will I be able to afford that helicopter pad in the backyard? Or will I instead be lucky to afford a kiddie pool for the backyard?

It's terribly difficult to get solid numbers due to the factors that affect the amount a first time author can receive. Agents tend to get higher advances for authors (but they take a cut). Publishers sometimes only take agented queries, so you may need to acquire an agent before making it into the "big time". Genre selection affects income as well as what topics are "hot" (Probably too late to start writing that novel about a vampire fighting a werewolf for the love of Mary Sue...by the time it gets into the queue to be published, mummy romance will be the next big thing, unless you're writing about a vampire wizard fighting a werewolf wizard who-shall-not-be-named...)

Being an author today is very much a business of branding yourself. From what I can find a new author is expected to bootstrap him or herself, drumming up their own popularity and online following, touring bookstores on their own dime...following a career path in writing is very much a labor of love that unless you are a fortunate lucky stars-smile-upon-you soul who hits the mega big time is going to take a lot of hard knocks along the way.

The averages I found? A 2005 survey done online by Tobias Buckell said $5,000. I found some statistics saying that yearly income is in the $10,000 to $12,000 range.

Ouch.

This means that most likely I'm not going to hit a jackpot. It means that if I want to be successful at this "writing thing" I will need to keep trying. It means that I need to remind myself of Mur Lafferty's rules of writing and that it's okay to suck. I may even need to face the possibility that this side project won't ever amount to much and I'm pouring an hour a day or more into a project that will cost me...well, a portion of my life I won't get back.

On the other hand the same could be said of much of the TV I've absorbed in my life.

Maybe this will be a long exercise in keeping perspective.