In a word, the life of an author is frustrating. It also can be liberating, creative, time-consuming, draining, depressing, overwhelming and exhausting. Sometimes it’s fun. It’s rarely, if ever, profitable, satisfying, complete.
Why would I put myself through the torture? I’ll explain below the two reasons why I became an author and three major reasons I wish I hadn’t.
Reason 1 I Became an Author: It's All I Know
I sometimes say I didn’t choose my profession. It chose me. That’s because I’ve been writing since childhood and I don’t remember anything else. It started with composing newspaper articles for a made-up city in a fictional European country. I quickly moved on to longer works.
When I was 10, I wrote my first novel, Katherine and Leeann, a story about two sisters in 1848. The sisters and their siblings were named after a series of dolls I owned, and the story takes place in Roscoe Village, an historic Ohio & Erie Canal town in Coshocton, Ohio. I visited the village twice in elementary school and that got me wondering what it would have been like to live there in the mid-19th century. I still have the brochure from my 1989 field trip. Admission was $5 for adults, and $2.50 for children. (In 2025, it’s $13 and $10.)
The story was written entirely in pencil in a 80-page, coil-less notebook with a pink cover. Here’s an excerpt: “By this time you are now wondering where you are. You are at my house in Roscoe Village in Ohio. It’s Christmastide you are a gift from Ma. I am Katherine Kate Myger a 11 year old third reader. Well, I must tell you more later.”
I still have the notebook, but my other early novels were recycled in 2021 to make room in my office. Since I began writing before most households had home computers, all early stories (and even more recently ones) were written longhand in a series of notebooks that I kept in a cardboard box in my office closet. The box measured 18”x18” and weighed 35 pounds. There was more historical fiction, some science fiction and a couple contemporary fiction books.
My first published novel was Angel of Mercy in 2019. At that point, I had been writing for more than 30 years.
Reason 2 I Became an Author: Seeing the Stories I Want to Read
Toni Morrison once said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
I suppose that’s what made me write the novels I published, starting with Angel of Mercy. Most war stories either focus on World War II or feature male main characters. I really enjoyed reading Jeffrey and Michael Shaara’s Gods and Generals trilogy, for example, but I would have loved to have known Mrs. Lee’s (or any of the wives’) opinion on her husband’s exploits. Angel of Mercy began with a concept: In World War I many communities were devastated. As with the American Civil War, the various military units were comprised of men from the same geographic area. Hence, I created a story featuring a nurse, her husband, her brother and her brother-in-law who are all in the service.
Those Left Behind was inspired by the need to explore what it was like for family members who were on the home front while Adjustment Year explored what it’s like to return to civilian life in a day and age when you’re expected to keep a stiff upper lip. My other three historical fiction books feature characters who are in the same family as Hettie, the main character in the WWI Trilogy ‒ her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother to be exact – and explore what their lives were like in the 19th century.
The Rock Star’s Wife series as well as the four subsequent rock star romances, I Don’t Hate You, My Best Friend’s Brother, Midlife Melody and Sunny Rock Harbor were inspired by the fact I don’t see many, if any, realistic stories featuring rock stars. In interview after interview, musicians discuss what it’s like being on the road and how it affects their mental health as well as how it pulls them away from a “normal” life with their spouses and children. Like me, their professions chose them and they often know nothing else.
The problem is that my books don’t fit neatly into any genre, and that can make marketing a challenge.
Telling the stories I wanted to tell is partially the reason why I decided to become an indie author. Indie authors have complete control over things like word count, characters names and book titles whereas traditionally published authors don’t. Traditionally published authors don’t have a say regarding marketing either, but more on that later.
Reason 1 Why I Wish I Hadn’t Become an Author: Reviews Rule Our World
Imagine having your bad report card or employee review posted online. That’s what getting a bad review feels like, and, for the record, Amazon considers anything under four stars as bad. Everyone with internet access knows your failings. Or your mediocrity. This is especially true when a book doesn’t have many reviews. Even one bad review can drag the average down, and it can take a long time to rise to the favored four star.
Most publishing experts assert that authors need as many reviews as possible for their books. This results in authors practically begging readers to leave reviews. Most readers don’t. Even in advanced review copy (ARC) campaigns, there’s always a percentage of people who claim a review copy yet never read it, yet alone leave a review.
The experts throw out different numbers regarding the magic number of reviews at which Amazon will start promoting books to readers who bought similar titles. I’ve heard 25, 50, 75 and 100 reviews. I know from experience it’s not the first two. None of my books have reached 75 or 100 reviews yet, although a couple are close, so if you would like to read my books and review them so I can find out what the magic number is, it would be appreciated.
Worse, there’s contradicting advice. While most experts emphasis reviews, reviews and more reviews, especially when a book is a new release, a handful of experts contend it’s actually the other way around. Reviews don’t equal sales. Sales drive reviews. In reality, I believe it is a bit of both. Reviews don’t equal sales, but having several reviews averaging four or more stars helps persuade readers who otherwise might be unwilling to take a chance on a new author.
Indie authors also need reviews to buy advertising from book marketers. The marketers with this requirement always expect a rating of four or more stars along with a minimum number of reviews. This varies, but I’ve seen it as high as 20 minimum reviews. Any book that doesn’t meet both requirements will be rejected. Most of my books don’t meet both, limiting the companies I can use to market my books. And, of course, no marketing means zero sales. No one is going to buy a book she doesn’t know exists.
Reason 2 Why I Wish I Hadn’t Become an Author: Produce, Produce, Produce
I read an article months ago that said in order for an indie author to have any hopes of making it on Amazon a strict publication schedule is necessary. The article recommended publishing one book everything three months for the first year or two and then one book every quarter from then on out. This raises several questions in my mind:
- Where are the ideas coming from?
- Are the authors using a cookie-cutter template for each story?
- What quality are these books?
- What about burnout?
Even at my fastest writing speed, I’ve never been able to match that production schedule. I don’t use formulas for my stories, and generating new ideas has taken a lot out of me mentally and emotionally. Burnout is a serious issue among the self employed. Working nonstop is one of the things that causes it. It also saps creativity.
Yet, it doesn’t take much research on Amazon to notice it isn’t uncommon to see authors with hundreds of titles for sale. Amazon counts eBook, paperback, hardcover and audiobook as separate titles, but still. Some authors are pushing 1,000 titles.
Reason 3 Why I Wish I Hadn’t Become an Author: The Life of a Starving Artist Gets Old Fast
I’m going to throw a bunch of numbers at you, but bare with me. They quickly disprove that authors are rich and famous. Most of us aren’t.
In 2022, the median writing and self-publishing-related income for indie authors was $12,749, according to a Alliance of Independent Authors survey. That figure was 53 percent higher than 2021.
Written Word Media conducted a survey of its own and discovered in 2024 that 46 percent of authors earn $100 or less monthly. Only 17 percent earn $20,000 or more monthly, and those that do have an average of 61 books in their catalogue. As I alluded to earlier, most authors make their money selling in volume.
The survey also revealed that authors spend approximately $700 per month on marketing. Of the authors who spend nothing on marketing, nearly all of them fall into the bracket earning $100 or less a month.
In the publishing world, a book must sell more than 100,000 copies to reach bestseller status. However, the average book sells 250 to 1,000 copies over its lifetime, and this applies to both indie and traditionally published books.
What About Traditional Publishing?
If indie publishing is so difficult, then why not go the traditional publishing route? Traditional publishing has troubles of its own.
It’s getting more difficult to get an agent, and without an agent you’re going nowhere in the traditional publishing world. Between 95 percent and 99 percent of manuscripts received are rejected. There are a variety of reasons for this including the premise and the quality of writing. Of the remaining percentage, most are rejected because of the market, similar titles agents have represented or timing.
Agent pitch the remaining books to publishers. About 10 percent of pitches result in a book deal.
Getting that book deal doesn’t guarantee sales. Ninety percent of traditionally published books sell no more than 2,000 copies. This is partially because publishers spend very little on marketing. Penguin Random House admitted in 2022 that it only spends 2 percent of its $2.7 billion in revenue on marketing.
The largest 10 publishers printed thousands of books in 2021. Of those, 163 books sold more than 100,000 copies. The majority, 51.4 percent of the books published, sold between 12 and 999 copies while 6,701 books sold under 12 copies.
Once you sign that deal, your book belongs to the publisher to do as it wishes. Authors must be aware of clauses in their contracts that prevent them from publishing under the same pen name with other publishers or that prevent them from writing stories using the same characters. These “do not compete” clauses can tie authors up for years.
It’s not uncommon for authors to receive no advance and when they do, it’s typically between $5,000 and $10,000. Agents take 15 percent of that off the top.
In order to earn royalties, authors must earn back their advances. After that, they receive between 7 percent and 25 percent of the net sales price. Doesn’t sound too bad, but there’s a catch. First, all overhead, marketing costs, returns, and discounts must be earned back before there’s a profit.
After signing a contract, authors get their advance in installments: When the publisher accepts the manuscript, when the book is published, and when the book is published.
Don’t Quit Your Day Job
The moral of the story is don’t quit your day job. Most authors have other jobs, myself included, to support themselves. I’m a freelance writer. I have professional editing experience and an eye for graphic design. Freelance writing and marketing have merged somewhat over the past decade, so I recently completed a certificate in public relations and certificates in graphic design and social media marketing. If I can help you in any way, please feel free to contact me via LinkedIn.
Is it too late to change my profession? Huh, I thought so so?