The Hard Reality of Being a Full-Time Author

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Many aspiring authors dream of quitting their day jobs to pursue writing full-time. While being a full-time author can be incredibly rewarding, there are also challenges that come with this career transition. In today’s video, I want to share five hard realities about being a full-time author so you can pursue this goal with a realistic mindset and set yourself up for success.
 
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THE TRUTH ABOUT BEING A FULL-TIME AUTHOR:
01:39 – Financial stability is not guaranteed  
03:50 – It requires a business mindset  
05:36 – You need discipline
07:05 – You’ll still get rejected
08:06 – It can be isolating  
 
ABOUT ME: 
My name is Alyssa Matesic, and I’m a professional book editor with nearly a decade of book publishing and editorial experience. Throughout my career, I’ve held editorial roles across both sides of the publishing industry: Big Five publishing houses and literary agencies. The goal of this channel is to help writers throughout the book writing journey—whether you're working on your manuscript or you're looking for publishing advice.
 
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[dlcraddock]

Hi, Alyssa,

I’ve been a full-time writer for coming up on 20 years, and your video resonated with me. I wanted to chime in to give your followers who aspire to write full-time an example of what that schedule looks like for someone who earns his living by writing.

I’ve published nearly 40 books, some self-published and some through traditional publishing channels. I write fiction and short stories, but I’m most known for narrative-style nonfiction about people who make video games. Some of my books cover games such as Diablo 1 and 2, Doom, Quake, Mortal Kombat, and many others.

I described myself as a “full-time writer” above, not a full-time author. “Writer” is the key word. My book sales ebb and flow, as you said, but most of the time I don’t earn enough in royalties to support myself as a full-time author. I am fortunate that I haven’t had to work a day job or night job for nearly two decades and can support myself through my writing, but it also takes everything you described in your video, especially disclipline.

My current schedule is as follows:

Monday: 5 hours of narrative design for an upcoming triple-A (defined as a big-budget title) video game, and what I call “admin” work. This pertains to what you said about the business side of being a professional writer. I schedule social media posts for the week, send and answer emails, research and reach out to prospective contacts to arrange interviews that will inform my nonfiction books, and other odds and ends. This frees up the rest of my week to focus on writing. I’ll still post on social media and answer emails, but the lion’s share of that happens on Mondays.

Tuesday: 5 hours of narrative design for the same upcoming AAA game. After that, I take a short break and work on one of the books I sold to a publisher.

Wednesday – Friday: Each of these days is devoted to separate works in progress. Wednesday’s book was picked up by a publisher, and so was Thursday’s book. Fridays are for a novel I’m working on. I revised it earlier this year, and then set it aside for a month so I could stop obsessing over it 24/7 and come back to it with fresh eyes. That month was September; I’ve been neck-deep in revisions since October; I don’t expect that to change until late January at the earliest.

Until recently, I was also a writer and director on a documentary about video game history. I started as an advisor, was promoted to a producer, and was asked by the exec. producer to head up the project because of the contacts I’d secured for our film and my extensive knowledge of the subject matter. It was extremely rewarding to learn a new type of writing, but it was as demanding as it was rewarding.

Anyone reading this might have one or two thoughts, or perhaps both: “Wow, this guy is lucky to have signed so many publishing contracts!” and/or “Wow, this guy is an idiot for signing so many publishing contracts!” Both are correct, and this brings me to another point you made: Writing is a feast-or-famine business. There have been times over the last nearly 20 years when I’ve gone to bed with a full plate of writing projects, and then woken up with nothing. The recession that began in 2008 cost me four freelance writing jobs and a full-time job as a narrative designer on a video game. Busy one day, jobless the next.

I hustled to find more work, and I did, but it took several months. It got bad enough that I applied at a Taco Bell and was offered a position. I want to stress that there is nothing wrong with working fast food, or retail, or any job. But I was depressed and ashamed that I’d gone from so many years supporting my wife (who also worked but was affected by the recession as well) and me, to possibly having to accept a job I did not want in order to make ends meet. There were a couple of occasions when I’ve had to swallow my pride and ask family for some financial aid.

I was reaching for my phone to call the Taco Bell manager and accept the job when the phone rang in my hand with an offer for another writing job. It wasn’t full-time, but it paid 25 cents a word (!) and I was allowed to write as much as I wanted (!!), as often as I wanted to write it Again: There is nothing wrong with working any job to support yourself and your family. But I wanted to continue to do that through writing because, among other reasons, I was afraid working a day job would leave me too tired to write before or after work. I would have adapted, but it would have been difficult.

I’m very, very lucky that I have such a strong support network. Not everyone has that, and I don’t take it for granted.

Returning to the subject of discipline, I try to keep the same schedule every weekday: wake up around seven, exercise, shower, and be at my desk writing by nine. Sometimes I finish at two or three in the afternoon. Most of the time I finish around six or seven in the evening. I eat dinner, spend time with my wife, read or play a game, and then crash so I can do it all over again the next day. I don’t advise taking on as many projects as I have, but it might be necessary, and the upside is when I find myself stuck or burning out on one, I’ll be able to redirect my attention to another the next day.

Weekends are for anything except writing. Almost. I journal every single day; it’s as much a writing exercise as it is my way of warming up before throwing myself into the workday.

In closing, I want to stress that I love what I do. I have some opportunities coming up that stand a 99.9% chance of giving me the freedom to be a full-time author, not just a full-time writer. But this is another reality I would like to add to your excellent list: You cannot wait for people to give you opportunities. That rarely happens. You’ve got to be ambitious, focused, and disciplined enough to create your own. Don’t wait for opportunity to knock. Build the door, then kick it down.

This is much longer than I intended, but I was moved and inspired by your video, and thought your viewers might find my schedule and experience valuable as a real-world application of every single point you made. Thank you for doing what you do—not just your editing, but taking time to give such motivating and practical advice.

[KathySierraVideo]

Oh wow… brings back memories 😳. My husband and I have been living from our royalties for the past 15 years, and the first years were brutal. But I agree 1000% that for us, we *had* to think of it as a business. And to be honest, that meant we needed to improve our chances of making an income, so… we went non-fiction. We never self-published, though I am thinking seriously about it now. With our first book — 2005– there was no choice really, because you still needed to be in physical bookstores then. And a serious chunk of our income is from translations and foreign rights, and we did not feel ready to try to do that ourselves.
The downside of trying to make a living from it is that we kept making choices based on “the market” and what would sell in higher numbers, rather than the topics we were most passionate about but that would not have a big enough audience.
I do have a part of me that still wants to try fiction, but non-fiction pays all the bills, and gave us the freedom.
No question we got lucky… our books have sold 2+ million print copies over these years, mostly because the topics were already extremely “hot” (computer programming, mostly).
Neither of us have written a book in the last five years though, so… it’s time 😁 if we want to keep up our income.
The hardest part of the first two years was trying to survive on a tiny advance, and then realizing it would take a very long time before we actually started seeing royalty checks. But I still would not trade this lifestyle for anything. We only tried book writing because we both lost our jobs. Later, our only regret was not doing this earlier.

[jimgilbert]

I'm "fortunate" in that I'm retired, so I can devote myself full-time to my writing. I put the word fortunate in quotation marks because my retirement was not of my choosing. Still, my retirement pay is enough for me to live on, so I'm in a stable financial situation while I write.
However, I know that not everyone is lucky enough to share my fortunate turn of events. I hope others in your audience take the advice you're offering in this video to heart.

[carolynbrubaker]

After writing professionally since I sold my first book in 1992 I am finally a full-time writer! Of course I had to retire from a career of teaching and get a monthly retirement check to pull it off but I'm finally there!! I know many many writers and only a couple are able to support themselves

[andyclark]

Thanks for the realistic tough love. I can see how Luka would want to hide from such a rough message.

[larssjostrom]

It is delightful to know that authors get rejected at any stage in their career, even the most prominent ones. It keeps my hopes up that my writing that has been rejected is at the level of published and hopefully successful authors. But I will still find ways to improve it.

[paulhriir]

The reality is that most of us are naive by human nature. One cannot simply understand the dangers or realities of certain situations until they experience it themselves.

No matter how many warnings, it's important to "NOT care enough", and just try. Expectations may disappoint, but that's never inevitable. As long as you don't get too attached with the idea of "perfect success." It's damn well worth it.

The goal is pretty simple for me on paper. My fantasy story gets published, becomes a big hit, and then it sets serialized 😶‍🌫️ ... Definitely gonna happen c'mon.

I think it's important to have cinematic goals for your stories, cause that's what takes them to the next level. I wanna be involved with the creation of the series for my story. Go there in person, be around the talent and the artists that will bring my story to life. Create connections, make deals. Sounds about right.

I'm an aspiring artist also so it would be good to gain a following by drawing and releasing art about my story.

Ofc, there's also the multiple story ideas that keep popping up along the way. I'm not letting them go to pass. All are noted.

Don't be afraid to dream big, everyone!

[mlpapc]

Grateful to have a job to eat, but prefer to write as a full-time author, even if it means suffering in some point. Been writing for over 40 years off and on, and have over 15 books published, but I am open to learn and grow in this field. Love your video, very well researched and expounded elegantly.

[dueling_spectra]

I agree and disagree with the point about discipline. It's very helpful to frame writing as being work when we're setting boundaries with friends and family. However, if you're always telling yourself that writing is "work" your brain will come to believe it and it could turn into a chore, zapping your motivation. Another danger is giving yourself an external reward for writing. In the long run it's better to cultivate joy from the act of writing itself.
Other tricks are to:
-attach your writing time to another habit that's already established in your schedule.
-Write in sprints (15mins to 1hr, find what works for you)
-Take boring breaks to reduce eyestrain and take care of physical needs (being hangry can interfere with writing) During these, I'm often still thinking about the story
-Spend the first few days noticing what distracts you. Then, when you're in logical-planning-brain mode set rules of what you can and can't do during writing time. (Creative flow shuts down parts of the brain responsible for executive function which includes will power. The rabbit holes become irresistible. There's a neurological reason why writing brain feels as distract-able as a toddler, so we can stop beating ourselves up for it.)
-Never guilt trip yourself for not getting as much done as you were hoping to. This zaps motivation.
-Start diagnosing your various kinds of writer's block, or as Becca Syme calls it, being stuck. There's flaming burnout, being too emotionally wrought to focus, not knowing what happens next in the story, having your subconscious slam on the breaks because you're about to fall merrily into a plot hole, or where you can't write the transition because you're in flow and the part of your brain that's needed is off line. Being stuck is a symptom of all those problems, but they need different approaches to solve each of them.

[lauriehazel]

Alyssa, thank you for this honest and very real perspective for aspiring authors/writers. You are very concise and clear and really able to show things that have to be considered when diving in this very hard but rewarding lifestyle.

[writerxlorenzo]

The business side is so harsh.. getting rejected because your genre isn't "popular" sucks. Your writing could be amazing, but if readers aren't reading it then.. 🤷🏿‍♂️

[valyogennoff]

Thank you very much, Alyssa, for all your valuable videos! I highly appreciate them. I'm a music composer, writing music for games and films. However, a month ago I started my first novel - a faith-based techno-thriller/suspense. I'm about 12000 words in and I hope it finds its place in the hearts of those who love the genre. I easily imagine writing music and prose to be my sources of income. Definitely not an easy path, though... Time will show. :)

[rowan]

A nice reality check. Of course I do hope that I can make a living of writing but still can't be any worse than the self path were you must be constantly on top of things. Time will tell.

[Awesome_Force]

Here's a tip: If someone doesn't sell any copies of their book, they won't get bad reviews/criticisms, because nobody knows it exists. :P

[IlseMulAuthor]

Being a full-time author is definitely my dream, but it does involve more than only my books. I hope to, besides my book, be able to offer author service. Things I'm thinking about is developmental editing specifically for worldbuilding, but also worldbuilding products that other authors and game designers can use.
With those services/products I hope to (slowly) build up a steady income that can support my living expenses so that everything that I, at some point, earn with my books is extra 😃

Thank you for your interesting insight into the full-time life of an author! These are good lessons to keep in mind.

Writer of a series feeling pressure? GRRM apparently not so much 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[UrbanSwagger]

Great topic! And CeCe Lyra's advice in the last newsletter was spot on.

[thatguyfromcetialphaV]

Ian Fleming was a journalist and only made about 200 dollars out of each James Bond novel. He didn't retire full time until the film rights were sold. Alistair MacLean was a school teacher and didn't get to be a full time writer until The Guns of Navarone was a box office hit - seven years after he started writing.

I wrote six manuscripts at the end of 2021, the first two will be published next year. I ended up writing another two stories during the editing of those books, and spent the last year fine tuning what I have written.

[maliacortez]

This was encouraging and discouraging at the same time! 😅 I am so bad at the business part of being an artist, from my years with my band to acting and being a writer I always had a hard time with the business stuff because it, honestly, killed my soul a little! Lol. My drummer did all the business stuff for my band, since he was great at it. With my writing I feel like I need someone to help manage me. 😂

[PetProjects]

The one about discipline hits hard, as I have bad adhd and executive dysfunction

[annworthington]

Such great advice. I prefer to stay in my bubble of writing as a creative outlet. I don’t want to stress about the business aspect of producing content, marketing, and sales 😊