So you want to be a writer and become rich and famous?  You might want to dial down your expectations a bit — at least, in regards to the “getting rich” part.

An organization called Novelists, Inc. (NINC) conducted a survey of its membership last year.  NINC is a terrific group, by the way, to which I belong.  Its membership is restricted to multi-published authors.  NINC queried a random sample of 100 of their members.  All 100 members responded, so this is a good sampling, with no self-selection involved.  These 100 authors had published a median number of sixteen (sixteen!) novels apiece.  Their genres were all over the board, with most of them published in mystery/thriller or women’s fiction/romance.  Nine percent of them have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list.  Nineteen percent of them had appeared on the USA Today bestseler list.  Clearly these are accomplished professionals. 

So they must be raking in the bucks, right? 

These writers were asked: “Do you (or could you) support yourself on your current writing income?”  The results:

Yes — 22%

Probably Yes — 9%

Probably No — 17%

No — 52%

These are depressing figures.  Only 31% of multi-pubished novelists are able to support themselves on their writing. 

Frankly, I’m not surprised by the results.  The novel-writing business is in many ways like the acting business.  We hear about Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, but we seldom hear about the struggling actor who’s moonlighting as a waiter.  We hear about JK Rowling, but we seldom hear about the mid-list author who’s written twenty original paperbacks.  Writing, like acting, is a buisness of dreams.  Sometimes those dreams come true; sometimes they don’t. 

So why do writers stick with it?  Because most of us love what we’re doing.  And we’d do it anyway, whether you paid us or not.