I really need to know how much first time authors really make in publishing their fiction? How much CAN and DO they make from first time author to first time best-selling author? What is the comparrision?
Please help me out here. I am not interested in becoming rich or wealthy. I just want to make a totaly of ten thousand to twelve thousand dollars.
Most authors don’t make much. I’ll give you a link to an article that gives some good info, but if you are lucky enough to get an offer to publish you probably aren’t going to make any more than the advance. The advance isn’t likely to be any more than $5000. Now if your book sells well you could make a decent amount - but most books don’t sell enough to make up for the deficit. Here’s the link that explains it in good detail - http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/advancesroyalties.html
Basically, don’t quit your day job 
My mate Bill Swampy Marsh is an author, and has had about a dozen books published, google his name if you want, but the thing is, after he had accounted for his time in writing books, he reckons the returns are about equivalent to $1.50 per hour.
It’s hard to make money as a writer, the publisher will give you about $2 per book sold if you are lucky. And as a poet, you would be lucky to sell 600 books in Australia, and that would make you a best seller in that genre.
Having said that, there is no stopping a person with the passion to write. Good luck to you, may you strike it lucky like J.K.Rowlins.
Most first time authors make nothing - because most first time authors either don’t get published or actually make a loss (because they self-publish).
Best selling authors can make a small fortune - even first time bestselling authors. But there are very, very few of them. Let’s see - Paolini, Rowling, Meyer…now name another one.
If you want to make a few thousand dollars, get a real job.
20 April 2009
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Well I’m pleased that you don’t want to be rich, that’s a good start.
It concerns me a bit that you expect to earn 10 -12 thousand dollars.
That just aint gonna happen, unless you are a genius.
L Ron Hubbard started his career as a fiction writer earning a penny a line, and look what happened to him, he went on to establish one of the most influential cults across the globe. $cientology.
Well he did say that writing fiction was uneconomical, and "if a man really wanted to make money, he’d start a religion"
Best start a religion.
20 April 2009 at 2:07 pm