Filthy Lucre

In our culture, it’s taboo to talk about money. You don’t ask another person how much they make, or how much their possessions cost, or how much they have in the bank. That’s especially true in publishing. Writers don’t usually talk openly about money. But they should. People should know the kind of money writers actually make. Readers should know whether or not they’re supporting an exploitative industry, and aspiring writers should know how much–or how little–they’ll realistically earn. We’re not doing this to scare you away from writing. We just think it’s better to have a realistic idea of the industry so you don’t get blindsided.

In this episode, Simon McNeil rejoins us to talk about what writers usually make, the hidden costs of writing, and why Disney Must Pay.

Links:

• Simon’s website

• Six Takeaways from the Authors Guild 2018 Income Survey

• Destituent Power and Divine Economy in Elden Ring

• I Never Made a Living Wage When I Worked in Publishing

• “Sponsored” by my husband: Why it’s a problem that writers never talk about where their money comes from

• An agent explains the ins and outs of book deals

• Royalties in Kindle Unlimited

• Black authors are on all the bestseller lists right now. But publishing doesn’t pay them enough.

• Three-in-ten Americans now read ebooks

• Clarion West 2016: Meet Team Arsenic

• DisneyMustPay: Authors form task force to fight for missing payments

• How Rod Dreher’s blog got a little “too weird” for the American Conservative

• A Dribble of Ink: Interview with Sam Sykes

(header image via Roman Oleinik with alterations)