I’ve missed you all.  I’ve missed the community here, and the chance to dish about the industry.  It’s been a few months (has it?) since I really sat down and wrote a post.  I mean, a real post that wasn’t about selling my latest book or announcing promotional stuff, which I guess is the real purpose of an author’s blog, a purpose that I never stuck to because I always had other things I wanted to talk about.  And even though I enjoyed the vacation, there many, many times when something startling would happen, or I’d hear a conversation, and I’d think, “gosh, I’d really like to blog about that!” 

But I didn’t.

I’m still a little leery about wading into these waters again.  I’m worried that I’ll once again stick my foot in my mouth and offend someone.  But I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s a certain subsegment of people out there who’ll be offended if I say the sky is blue, and sometimes you just have to ignore those people and speak your mind.  Those people will be offended no matter what you say.  Life is too short to care what they think.  (Yeah, and please keep reminding me of this.)

I was also lured back into blogging by all the emails I’ve received over the past few months.  And then I heard the somewhat startling news that I landed on the 100 top female bloggers list.  Which I didn’t even know existed until someone sent me the link to it.

So I guess despite all the gaffes I’ve made here (and will certainly make in the future), I must be striking some notes that people are identifying with.

My business of writing gem for this week is actually stolen from the June 23 issue of Publishers Weekly, a column called “Authors & Writers By the Numbers.”  Some stats:

Total number of authors and writers, 2005: 185,276

Median income for full-time authors: $50,800

Median income for all authors: $38,000

Median income for male authors: $47,300

Median income for female authors: $33,300

Percent of authors who are minorities: 10.8%

Source: National Endowment for the Arts study, 1990-2005

You know what?  I have a really, really hard time believing some of these statistics.

That median income surprises me, especially after I saw the Novelists Ink survey in which a large percentage of multi-published novelists can’t earn a living on their writing.  I’m also very skeptical of the number of minority authors.  Whenever I attend a writer’s conference, I find that I’m one of very few minorities in attendance.  I’m also surprised to find that male authors out-earn female authors, because I’ve always thought that female authors outsell male authors.

So these statistics surprise me. 

Finally, there’s this statistic:

Highest ranking city in authors per capita:  Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Okay, that I believe.