Writing Stack Exchange
Writing Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [money]

This tag should be used for questions about money and finances involved in being a Writer.

This tag should be used for questions about money and finances involved in being a Writer. You should mention what aspects you are interested in, such as royalties, profits through services like those from , copyrights or general ways to make money through writing. Depending on your specific question you might also want to mention your location and the type of writing or genre you are interested in.

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How to prevent ebook piracy from stealing your livelihood?

I'm a part-time writer, still working on my novel (with a long term goal to make a living as a writer). My partner is also a writer, full time, with a couple dozen novels in ebook format, who makes a reasonable living solely from ebook sales. …
Zeiss Ikon
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Why do hardcover books retail for more than three times the cost of softcover books?

One thing I've noticed while browsing bookstores is that hardcover books tend to cost more than softcover ones. Oftentimes a hardcover book that's five times the price of a paperback doesn't have five times the mass of one. Is it the manufacturing…
Kalamane
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How Much Can You Make From Writing a Book?

Obviously this question has a lot of different answers. I'm interested in the typical total profit that a writer might expect to see from: A NYT Bestseller A diet or self-help book that sells 100,000 copies A romance novel that sells 10,000…
John Shedletsky
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How many words/hour should you aim for when writing your first draft?

A couple of axioms here. Firstly, most people agree that you should write your first draft quickly, without too much care on quality, and get something down on paper first. The real writing begins with the second draft. This is the approach that…
Panda
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Can I self-publish on a reputable publishing platform, and how much would it cost?

With the barrier to having a publisher sign a new author seemingly high, especially without prior success or experience, are there any good author-funded alternatives out there to the repeated mailing of manuscripts out to additional publishing…
QuickerSnarkerBacker
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How can my book purchase get the most money to an author?

I'm a reader, not an author. But, when I buy books (in whatever format) from authors I enjoy, I'd like as much of my purchase prices as possible to get to those authors. So, I'm wondering: do authors get more or less for purchase of a given work…
Daniel Griscom
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Is being paid by the word/page making American books longer?

I buy quite a lot of literature, mostly of academic nature. One thing I have noticed is that books by American authors always tend to be more explicit and contain more examples, regarding whatever subject. Now, I have heard a rumor that American…
Anders
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How overcome the budget constraint while building a fiction writing career?

Recently I was exposed to several sources that suggest that writing one novel a month is possible: The book 2K to 10K by Rachel Aaron, "Write. Publish. Repeat", and my old statistics file that shows that on good days I wrote over 4000 words per day…
user23411
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How should I go with hiring an illustrator for a webcomic?

I want to start writing a webcomic, but as my talent as an illustrator is limited, I would only write the scripts and let to someone else the task to bring my script into picture. The only problem is that I don't know anyone who could do that. The…
Eldros
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If you get an advance do you ever have to give it back?

Do publishers give you an advance as some sort of earnest money for your manuscript? If your work doesn't sell very well do you have to give the advance back to them? Do they ever just buy your work and you get some money plus royalties? thanks.
johnny
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Should freelance writers keep their online business separate from offline?

Freelance writers have a lot of opportunity to write online, but in some cases the rates are less than the same writing project might command offline. Assuming that there are enough advantages in taking online writing gigs to offset the disadvantage…
ArcticLlama
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Is a professional editor worth the cost?

The pros and cons of alternatives to professional editors have already been discussed here. It has already been established that nothing can quite replace the many alternatives that exist, as these alternatives are best used in conjunction with a…
Caspian
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Can I make money from short fiction?

Can one still make money from short fiction, and what is the best way? I know in days gone past it has been possible to sell short fiction to magazines or papers, who would pay per word, or some such, but is this still possible and is it the best…
Michael
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Who pays for lyrics or quotes?

Occasionally, novels will include song lyrics in the story, or start out chapters with songs or quotes. In many cases, these lyrics or quotes are from copyrighted materials and would presumably require royalties be paid to the original author. Does…
sjohnston
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What are the advantages of incorporation for a writer?

I have heard of some (rather successful) writers incorporating - that is, creating a corporation of which they are the sole member. What are the potential advantages (or disadvantages) of doing this? As this probably varies a bit by location, I am…
sjohnston
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