money
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Art Doesn’t Pay
The arts don’t pay very well, and working as a professional in a creative field like writing, music, or film has grown more precarious. High student debt doesn’t help, but it might explain why almost a quarter of arts graduates…
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From Applebee’s to Published Author
Scott Cheshire explains that he started flirting with the woman who became his wife by telling her he had a novel coming out. Twelve years later, it did. Today, he is a published novelist with a graduate degree, but back…
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An Author’s Economics
How much does it cost to write a book? Kevin Sampsell, author of This is Between Us and A Common Pornography, opens up to The Portland Mercury about how much he actually earned from his books — or rather, how…
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Publishers Are Rich
Writers have been getting poorer, and it turns out publishers are partly to blame. The Guardian reports that while authors are expected to do more when it comes to marketing and promotion, and though electronic books have lowered costs for publishers,…
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Amazon Attempts to Drive Wedge Between Authors and Hachette
The standoff between Amazon and Hachette has harmed authors more than either corporation. The corporations are surviving on massive war chests and alternate revenue streams. Authors, however, are far more adversely affected by reduced book pre-sales and the sale of…
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Writers Are Poor
A British study has confirmed that professional writers aren’t making very much money, and worse, that earnings for writers have fallen 29% since 2005. A survey of 2,500 British authors found median annual income at just £11,000 ($18,800) and only…
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All the Poor Young Literary Women
Earlier this year, Emily Gould wrote about the perils of selling her first book, an essay collection, and the importance of getting out of debt before finishing her novel. That novel, Friendship, launches next week. Gould spoke with Melissa Duclos over at…
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The High Cost of Literary Journals
Michael Nye, managing editor of The Missouri Review, explains some of the costs required to start and operate a literary journal. Financial issues are the fastest way to kill a journal, but money also creates a divide between writer and…
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Shocking News: Writers are Poor
If anyone was still laboring under the impression that writing is a lucrative business, a new report from Digital Book World is here to pulverize your hopes and dreams. After interviewing 10,000 authors at all different points in their careers,…
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Writers on Time Spent Down and Out
George Orwell recounted his experiences with poverty in Down and Out in Paris and London, and Paul Auster his in Hand to Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure. Rumpus contributor Kaya Genç writes about his own brush with running out of money,…
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“It Was Worth Every Minute and More”
Writing-biz veteran Lydia Laurenson once landed a translation deal for a book that involved her German publisher flying her to Germany for professional photography sessions and multiple TV appearances. “Yet, when I calculated it,” she writes, “I made way less…
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Writing Even Though You Can’t Make A Living Off It
The best things on my CV—the ones I almost want to use comic sans for, just so they’ll stand out—haven’t paid me. In an essay for The Toast, Jilly Gagnon lays bare the realities of the writing life: handling 3,128…