Show me the Money

When you cannot eat the hype and they don't pay regularly, you have to get other full-time jobs.

Author

Binati Sheth
April 03, 2023

“One of the easiest ways to make money online is to write a book,” says the Cheshire cat selling a book writing course.

“I made $100,000 by writing books online for free, you can too,” says the Hunchback of Book-Coach-Ton.

“I retired at 30 and now I write books for a living,” says Don Not-so-Quixote.

You have all seen these ads, read these posts and watched these immaculately edited videos. Does writing books really make you enough money to live by?

It… depends.

In defence of content creators who say these things, you definitely can get some passive income from books. To be a full-time author with these hustles on is still a far-fetched-dream.

Exhibit A is how every single multi-million-books-sold author still has a full-time job. They’ve sold millions of copies around the world in multiple languages, secured syndication deals (movie/TV show rights), appeared as guest speakers, et al. - they’ve done it all. They still keep their jobs. Why? It’s because this all is Mayasura’s palace of illusions.*

Exhibit B is the successful authors opening up their bank statements to showcase the grim reality of book publishing and the money it brings - the money takes months to come.

The Traditionally Published author

Xiran Jay Zhao

Xiran Jay Zhao is a booktok+booktube sensation. Their books are popular, truly popular. They are on every bestseller list. They recently posted two videos explaining why the highly anticipated sequel of Iron Widow is late.

To quote them,

❝

“Publishing didn’t pay me enough to prioritise writing it…You can’t eat hype.”

Their timeline goes:

  • Spent 7 years writing Iron Widow, a sci-fi reimagining of China's only female emperor Wu Zetian (with giant mechas).

  • Finished writing Iron Widow in their last semester at University.

  • Sold their manuscript to publishers in January 2020 who undervalued their book because of the niche.

  • They were paid $14,000 split in multiple payments for their manuscript.

  • Iron Widow released in 2021. They were paid $4,000 then.

  • Got their first Iron Widow royalty payments in late April 2022, 8 months post their book’s release.

  • They had to get a full-time job - YouTube content creator.

  • They also had to supplement their income by writing another series - Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, a Chinese Percy Jackson x Yugioh middle grade adventure. It sold at auction to Simon & Schuster for an undisclosed six figures.

  • Iron Widow’s sequel is now late because they didn’t have time to write it.

A latest update (in 2024) shows Xiran still struggling with their publishers about the editing of their book due to political opinions and publisher ego. To quote them: “For almost a month now they've refused to give me ANY of the edits OR settle the editor change so I'm basically left in limbo and wasting precious time and will probably miss the chance to keep the book in 2024 even though it was perfectly possible.” Source: X (formerly known as Twitter).

If they can’t get the books out, how will they earn any money?

The Self Published author

Daniel Greene is a big name in the book review space, specifically when we talk about the fantasy genre. His thoughtful video essays have earned him 1500+ paid supporters on Patreon and he has an active YouTube community of 490,000+ subscribers. When his Lawful Times Series was announced, the book review space was excited for the book's launch. Daniel pulled off a concentrated strike when Breach of Peace came out. Just about everyone in the BookTube, BookTok, Bookstagram, BookTumblr and BookTwit content creation space reviewed his book organically.

He had self-published. Rebels Creed, book 2 in the Lawful Time series is also self-published. Book 3, to be launched soon, will be traditionally published. He used (but does not recommend) Ingram Spark to distribute his books.

The numbers go:

  • Total paperback sold: 29,742 copies.

  • Total Money earned from his print run: $122,964.

  • Total e-books sold: Kindle (10,599 copies) + Google Books (685 copies) + Audible exclusive in 2020, 2021 (11,169 copies).

  • Money earned: Kindle ($31599.77), Google Books ($2230), Audible ($21790).

  • He made an additional $2,000 by relying on unnamed external vendors.

  • Total money earned in 2020, 2021, 2022 was $180583.77.

  • Money Spent: $10,000 to get the audio books set up. He hasn’t mentioned what he paid to get his book edited, formatted and all the various other graphic designing + marketing costs.

Both of these authors made a lot of money from their books. Both still have to work as full-time, content creator because how is $200,000 supposed to last you a lifetime?

When you fall into the hook-trap of buying courses that over-promise and under-deliver, you need to know how when there’s a gold rush, there’s more money to be made selling shovels than sifting the sand for gold.

Be careful and listen to people who offer information over those who sing melodious, aspirational tunes.

Writing books will make you money, but not enough money to let you lead a comfortable, cushy life.

*In the Mahabharata, Asura architect Mayasura or Maya builds a wonderful palace of illusions for the Pandavas on their side of Hastinapur. It seemingly disappeared when non-Pandavas came to live in it.

Sources:

Video by Daniel Greene → https://youtu.be/xke64dvmoUc

Books Mentioned: