How Fiction Writers Make Money

By Glen C. Strathy

November 2026

Today I thought I would ramble a bit how fiction writers make money and one approach I think most aspiring authors should be wary of. 

First, a little preamble...

Something that amazes me about booktube these days is how it has been overlapped with the business opportunity or "biz. opp." "Biz opp," in case you haven't delved, is for people looking for businesses they can start that will generate a 6-7 figure, self-employed income with a minimum  of time, effort, investment, or education. Why it amazes me is that, traditionally, writing fiction was not something anyone did in hope of getting rich. 

For most beginning writers, writing is a passion, a calling, a vocation. Their motivation is not primarily money but a desire to share their stories, ideas, or their language skills with the world. The problem is, how do you pay the bills while you're devoting the long hours, if not months, if not years researching and writing your magnum opus? Well, traditionally there have been 3 main methods...

How Fiction Writers Make Money
Method 1: Start Off Rich

Absolutely the best way to finance your writing is to inherit a large fortune, or even a modest fortune. In the same category, I would place having a spouse with a high-income, winning a lottery, or making so much money early in life that you can retire while you're still young enough to have the energy and passion to write.

The biggest advantage of this method is that you are free to write the books you want, the way you want, limited only by your talent. You can even publish them yourself, if you don't want to follow the advice of an editor or publisher.

Sometimes, the freedom to write what and how you like leads to the creation of unique, original works that exhibit true and lasting genius. Many great writers in history were either independently wealthy or members of a religious order, because such people tended to be educated and didn't need to spend their days earning a living. 

Of course, writers who start off rich can also be people whose ambition exceeds their talent, who publish self-indulgent tripe that any competent publisher would have told them to lock away in a desk drawer or perhaps burn.

But what do they care? It's their money, so they can do what they like.

How Fiction Writers Make Money
Method 2: Patronage

Many artists and writers throughout history have depended on the support of a wealthy aristocrat who would provide them with enough income that they could spend their time creating art. While there are not many job openings for "poet laureates" these days, other forms of patronage still abound in literary circles. 

If you are a literary fiction writer, you may make the bulk of your income from public readings, writer-in-residence grants, or teaching. Writers of children's books often rely on school visits to pay the bills.

In Canada, where I live, the population and therefore the reading public has always been small. So the Canadian publishing industry depends on government grants to survive. Governments need to prove they are spending taxpayer money wisely, so they focus on supporting works deemed to have cultural merit. Consequently, the Canadian publishing industry has traditionally prioritized literary fiction and regional fiction, and most Canadian writers of popular or genre fiction have had to publish abroad.

Crowdfunding is another source of patronage where, instead of getting money from one rich aristocrat who wants the status of being a patron of the arts, you ask a lot of ordinary people to chip in a little money in exchange for perks like early editions, signed copies, merchandise, getting their name on a list of supporters, etc.

The advantage of patronage is that it lets some very talented writers earn a living even if their work appeals only to a niche readership. You don't have to please millions of readers. A few thousand or even a few hundred fans can be enough, if they are willing and able to support your work.

There is a trade-off, of course, in that you have to please your patrons. And most patrons only want to support certain types of books and stories.  But if you can find patrons who want to fund the type of books you want to write, patronage can be great.

How Fiction Writers Make Money
Method 3: Appealing to the Masses

The way third fiction writers make money is by writing stories that appeal to large numbers of readers, so that your royalty stream (if you're traditionally published) or net sales (if you're an indie publisher) are substantial enough that you don't need a day job.  

This is where we think of people like J K Rowling, Stephen King, Daniel Steele, and other well-off writers. Rowling in particular is that exceedingly rare writer who went from rags to riches by writing one of the most popular books in history. 

Of course, chasing popularity has its challenges, the major one being that no one can predict what book or type of book will be a guaranteed bestseller. Publishers don't know this any more than writers. If they did, more of the books they release would be profitable.

The other challenge is that, when writing for the masses, some writers get drawn into feeling they must compromise their passion even more than when writing for patrons. They may never write the kind of books they dreamed of writing when they were young and money didn't matter.

Worse, writing things you aren't passionate about is hard, boring, and unfulfilling. I spent a fair number of years writing for money, and my experience is that the less passionate you are about what you're writing, the harder it is to write well. 

On the other hand, if you are lucky and find that the books you get fun and fulfillment from writing are what a large readership wants, you may find yourself riding a gold train.

This brings us back to...

The Biz. Opp. World

Maybe it's because I have always loved books and stories that I hate to see certain people within the bus. opp. crowd selling the idea that aspiring writers should focus on churning out low-quality books at a high volume just for the sake of generating sales. (I'm not against sales. I just like good books.) 

The pressure to be more prolific than is humanly possible, to exploit amazon's algorithm, can lead to not just low-quality, badly edited books, and author burn-out, but also to writers resorting to AI generated text rather than actual writing (don't get me started on this topic). 

Personally, I think there are many jobs one could do to earn a more predictable income than writing books, if income is what you want -- construction worker, for instance, dental hygienist, real estate agent, bus driver, financial advisor etc. 

But if writing is your passion, what method should you use to both make money and have time to write? That's different for everyone. For some, it's hard to find a way to pay the bills without too much compromise. Others have an easier time of it.

In my opinion, writing should be enjoyable and fulfilling. Books should never be "minimally viable products." They should be works of passion that writers took time to create. They should deliver real value to readers, whether that means emotional satisfaction, fun, intellectual stimulation, the opening of the mind to new vistas or experiences, etc. 

So this shopping season, if you're buying books for children or young people in your family, don't buy just any book someone is flogging for a quick buck. Look for quality teen and children's fiction. 

And if you're an aspiring author, don't compromise too much for the promise of easy money. Easy money is seldom easy anyway, so you might as well put your effort into creating something you can be proud of.

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