An anonymous author of children’s literature tells it how it is at The Bookseller:
“This whole business is founded on the desperation of children’s authors to be published and then their willingness to put up with terrible pay, because they want to be published again…This allows publishers to pay us a pittance, but it’s okay, because we will make up the difference in school visits. The publishers expect it. They even arrange free ones for us, hoping that we will learn on the job and convert that into an income stream.
But it’s exhausting […] Above all, it is not fun. For many of us, the physical and mental toll of turning up and performing can be debilitating. And that’s if we can even do it. Giving up your day job to visit schools isn’t easy, nor is parking your own children or dealing with health issues on the road. Some of us feel massively unconfident about it. We are writers, not performers. We are not teachers either, and yet find ourselves running workshops for keen and unkeen young writers.”
Also, publishers prefer to publish children’s books ‘written’ by celebrities and most of these books are terrible. But not all of them! Here Emily Gould rates the best celebrity children’s books at The Cut.
Not that things are much better for those who write for adults, as Kate Dwyer explains in Has It Ever Been Harder To Make a Living As An Author?:
“Without any other revenue streams, it’s highly unlikely that someone could make ends meet or support a family by writing novels. Most novelists have day jobs, and the majority of those who don’t are either independently wealthy or juggling a handful of projects at once, often in different mediums like film, journalism, and audio.”
But here’s some advice on how to deal with the depressing life of an author. Ask Polly consoles an author who’s devastated that her book barely sold:
“Blaming yourself for not selling books is like blaming yourself for aging. It’s irrational. Books don’t sell, period. Have you ever skimmed the best seller list? If a book is truly great, it’s almost guaranteed not to sell. You’re calling yourself a failure for things that are out of your control […]
But listen to me: You write because you believe in it. You still believe, even now. You crave love, and that part of you isn’t humiliating. It’s sad and pure and true. It’s a gift. So stop telling yourself lies and repeating this world’s bad noises. No one smart measures quality on sales. No one enlightened reduces art to commerce.”
To be an author, you need to be intelligent, creative and resilient. You need to be stubborn. You must never give up on your goals.
You need to be Stoffel the honey badger:
It has been over a year since you last posted, and I am hoping you are still writing . I reread your Montmaray books every year or so and I do not see myself stopping anytime soon. But if you have gone on to focus on other things than writing I wish you the best of luck.
Thanks for your comment, Megan, and I hope you’re well. I am working on a new novel! Not Montmaray-related and not even historical, for a change. It’s been a joy to work on so far and I’ll post about it once the first draft is done.
I feel a tiny bit guilty that I’ve let Memoranda lapse, but it’s just been too difficult this past year to balance Day Job, general Life Stuff, and writing a new novel. Also, given all the horrible events going on around the world, my blog posts felt a bit trivial and pointless and self-indulgent. But I’ll have a think, once the new book is done, about getting back to blogging on a semi-regular basis.