Wanting to become an Author because you hate your Day Job, is a rather dangerous thing

There are a non trivial number of authors who want to become an author primarily because they hate their current work and think being an author would be more enjoyable or more lucrative or more comfortable or more fulfilling

This is an extremely dangerous assumption to make

Being an author might not be any of those things

Is being an Author easy?

This is a really tough question to answer

Things that make being an author easy include

1. Writing is a ‘you do it your way’ sort of profession
   1. No boss
   2. No performance reviews
   3. Your own hours
2. You only have to make readers happy
   1. If you can reach readers
   2. If you can sell to them and make them happy
   3. Then no one can interfere in your success (well, almost no one except the store)
3. If you like to write, then writing books as an author is 25% to 60% of your time writing books
4. You can avoid dealing with other people, almost entirely
   1. If you are a recluse, or an introvert, writing will suit you
   2. On the flip side, it will greatly exacerbate your discomfort with people
5. You get to make the decisions
   1. For better or for worse, you can make all the decisions
   2. Please Note: For this reason, writing is a really good profession for people who have a hard time getting along with others
   3. Please Note: This is also a reason why authors have such a low success rate. There is one person making all the decisions, with no guidance, and often with no research or analysis

Things that make being an author difficult include

1. You are basically an entrepreneur and a small business owner
   1. You have to handle EVERY aspect of your business – product creation, finances, marketing, sales, customer support, strategy
2. It is a very solitary profession
3. It is a roller coaster of a profession with lots of highs and lows. It can drive you crazy
   1. One day you have readers writing your book is beautifully written, and you are hitting the bestseller list in your genre
   2. The next day you have someone giving your book a 1 star review, and sales have disappeared
   3. If you crave stability, becoming an author is a very bad choice
4. There are a very large number of people who want to become authors
   1. There are also almost no roadblocks to people writing and publishing books
   2. Hence, there is almost infinite competition
5. Your ideas and your book stories will get stolen quite often
   1. Authors with bad intentions will steal your story ideas
   2. Book piraters will steal your books
   3. If you see success, you will see clones and knock offs inundate the market

There are lots of pros and cons. Please do your due diligence and see if this is the right profession for you

Will you like being an Author more than your current work?

Beware – the grass is always greener on the other side

Being an author is not a ‘mojitos on the beach’ and ‘it’s five o’clock somewhere’ kind of lifestyle

Nor is it a ‘just write the book and everything else happens magically’ kind of profession

There are parts of being an author you will probably love

1. Selling your books
2. Getting the validation of sales and good reviews
3. Writing for a living
4. Total creative dictatorship
5. Having control of everything
   1. Being your own boss
   2. Calling the shots
6. [Not for everyone, only for the top 2% or so] The times when you get extreme validation of becoming a bestseller, selling a lot of books, getting offered a book deal
7. [Not for everyone, only for the top 0.5% or so] Becoming financially successful doing something you love (hopefully) and where you determine your own hours
   1. In fact, you also determine exactly what work you do i.e. what you write

There are also parts of being an author you might not like at all

1. The struggle of managing everything
2. Bad Reviews
3. When a book bombs
4. Having to do your own marketing
5. Having to manage finances, do accounting, do taxes
6. The instability
7. The ups and downs and the emotional rollercoaster

There are a lot of headaches that come with being an author. In effect, you are a mini CEO running a small business. You have all those headaches. On top of that you have to carve out enough time to put on your ‘creative artist’ hat and write books

Is being an Author lucrative? Will you make a good amount of money? Can you get rich?

Warning: All the figures in this section are GUESSES. This is a rough guesstimate. Please do your own analysis if you are trying to figure out whether or not authors make a good living

Being an author is the furthest you can get from finding a line of work where it is easy to get rich. Same if you’re looking for a line of work where there is a high probability of making a good amount of money

Being an author does not go hand in hand with financial stability

1. Very few authors (less than 3%) make a good amount of money
   1. Keep in mind that Amazon says 1,000+ authors made $100,000+ from Kindle Digital Publishing in 2018
   2. And that ‘thousands of authors’ made $50,000+ from Kindle Digital Publishing in 2018
      1. That probably means 2,000 or 3,000
   3. There are well over 200,000 authors selling their books in the Kindle Store
      1. We are talking about only 0.5% of authors making $100,000+ a year
      2. We are talking about roughly 1% or 2% making $50,000+ a year
      3. The ‘killer’ is that this amount is the gross. After cutting out costs such as book production, marketing, and other costs, the amount of authors making a good living from the Kindle Store will be well below 1%. Perhaps just 0.5%
   4. To this 0.5% to 1%, add the perhaps 100,000 or so published authors who are active. Perhaps 1% to 3% of those are doing well
   5. The percentage of authors who make a good or decent amount of money from books is PERHAPS
      1. 2% to 4% making a decent living (enough to pay living expenses) of perhaps $30,000 to $60,000 net a year
         1. Perhaps just 6,000 to 12,000 authors out of the 300,000 or more authors trying to make a living as an author
      2. 1% or less making a good living of $70,000 to $110,000 net a year
         1. Perhaps just 3,000
      3. 0.3% to 0.6% making a very good living of $150,000 or more net a year
         1. Perhaps just 1,000 to 2,000
      4. 0.1% to 0.3% making a very healthy income of $250,000 or more net a year
         1. Perhaps just 300 to 1,000
   6. The key thing to keep in mind is that the other 96% are PERHAPS not even making $30,000 take home income a year

Please go over those figures carefully

This is not a profession like being a doctor, where 80% to 90% of people make a very good living

This is a profession like being a musician or an actor. Where 2% to 4% make a decent living, and the other 96% have to find a day job to support their artistic ‘career’

Do not get swayed by the tiny 0.1% to 0.3% that are making a very good income of $250,000 or higher

If you do some research, you will realize that it takes an incredible amount of hard work to be in that top 0.1% to top 0.3%

Is being an Author fulfilling? Will it be more fulfilling than your current job?

There are definitely parts of being an author that are very fulfilling

If you are looking for fulfillment, it is important to figure out

1. Is it really work that will give you the fulfillment that you crave
   1. Or is there some other aspect of your life that needs to be fixed
2. If it is work that will give you fulfillment – Will writing books and selling books give you that fulfillment?
   1. There is a good chance that your current day job has as good a chance of giving you the fulfillment that you seek

There is a reason why a disproportionate number of authors are alcoholics

Looking for fulfillment in writing books is a dangerous endeavor

Is being an Author a comfortable existence?

No, not at all

1. If you become one of the very successful authors, the top 0.1% to 0.3%, there is quite a comfortable existence. However, you also have a lot of headaches (as do the top 0.1% to 0.3% in almost every profession)
2. If you are in the top 2% to 4% who make a decent to good living, life can be comfortable
   1. The one fear/pain that will follow you around is that there is infinite competition in books
   2. The bookstores themselves, and other authors, are constantly looking to steal your position in the top 4%
3. If you are in the remaining 96%, who do not make a good to decent living from books, then life is rather uncomfortable

Again, we will remind you that unlike certain professions where 80% to 90% of people have a good life financially, being an author is a ‘creative job’ where only 2% to 4% have a good life

The remaining 96% have to keep their day jobs

Will being an Author give your life a sense of purpose?

No, it won’t

Not much else to say

Will being an Author give you a higher chance of success than your current job?

Please see the section above. In particular, this part

1. The percentage of authors who make a good or decent amount of money from books is PERHAPS
   1. 2% to 4% making a decent living (enough to pay living expenses) of perhaps $30,000 to $60,000 net a year
      1. Perhaps just 6,000 to 12,000 authors out of the 300,000 or more authors trying to make a living as an author
   2. 1% or less making a good living of $70,000 to $110,000 net a year
      1. Perhaps just 3,000
   3. 0.3% to 0.6% making a very good living of $150,000 or more net a year
      1. Perhaps just 1,000 to 2,000
   4. 0.1% to 0.3% making a very healthy income of $250,000 or more net a year
      1. Perhaps just 300 to 1,000
2. The key thing to keep in mind is that the other 96% are PERHAPS not even making $30,000 take home income a year

Compare that with your current job

Will being an Author be mostly about writing, or will it mostly be about things other than writing?

This is the one that trips up the most people

As an author your work will include

1. Writing Books
2. Marketing Books via paid marketing
3. Marketing Books via free methods
4. Doing market research to figure out what to write
5. Working with people who help you create the book i.e. editor, cover designer, proof reader, beta reader
6. Working with companies and people who provide you services i.e. email newsletter, marketing, tech services, software, digital distributor, bookstore
7. Building direct channels to readers
8. Communication with readers
9. Finances
10. Being a mini CEO and handling the entire company
11. Deciding Strategy
12. Accounting and Taxes

If you think your work is 90% writing, that’s inaccurate. Your work will be between 25% to 60% writing. The rest is a lot of things that are not writing