Is writing a hobby or a career? One probably doesn’t have to worry about monetary value if it’s a hobby. If it’s a career, you need to. Right? Can it be both?
Most writers don’t make enough money from their writings to support themselves. For example, they keep a well-paying job, be it a college professor, book editor, or analyst, and write their fabulous novel in their free time. It’s kind of like a hobby – the passion for the story. Hoping for fame and fortune, that an agent, editor, or influencer will like their book so much that it goes viral. Makes it big. Their book sells ten million copies. Last year, the bestselling book was Kristin Hannah’s The Women. It sold 1.5 million copies.
The average book sales for a “normal” author are about 250 copies over the life of a book. Just a few books sell millions. Using this data, an author, especially a new author, might have difficulty selling 1000 copies. Amazon sells about 300 million printed books every year. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) publishes about 7,500 new Kindle eBooks daily, translating to about 225,000 eBooks monthly and 2.7 million books annually. Whew! There are a lot of published authors out there, not to mention unpublished writers!
My first book, Sylvie, sold over 1200 copies in the first week it was out. I was thrilled! I worked long hours marketing the book: speaking on the radio, presenting at libraries, giving interviews for the paper, hosting a book launch, and engaging online. However, the book quickly lost its bestseller status, either because I eased out of that marketing and publicity momentum, or it was just a good honeymoon run that would have slipped regardless. Maybe a little bit of both. I don’t know. However, I do see now that I didn’t have the stamina to maintain such a demanding schedule, to work as hard as it might take without an end date. Because, in truth, that is what it takes to have a book stand out from the crowds.
A well-known editor once said, “Writing is only 10% of publishing. 90% should be for marketing. Gone are the days of national book signing tours to meet fans or to be featured on TV. To the astonishment of a traditionally published author and the bewilderment of the independent or self-published author, it’s up to the author to manage all marketing and publicity.”
To become an excellent writer is hard. Publishing is harder. I’m working on it. But I think I’ll take the hobby approach for this next year. Just write for the joy of writing. Daydream about the characters from the new novel I’ve started, flesh them out. Pretend to invite them into my home. Bake cookies. Go camping. Find calm in the recent chaos of things and settle into my retirement.
“How beautiful it is to do nothing and then rest afterward.” Spanish Proverb
Enjoy the Passage of Time.
Sharon
© 2025. Sharon Kreider. All Rights Reserved.
One thought on “Writing: Hobby or Career?”
I’m pretty sure that I’ll never make a living at writing – in fact with competition fees and the like I’ve probably made a loss! But then I do enjoy writing for the joy of it and making it too much like work can make me fall out of love with it. Still, I’d love my novels to be published and reach an audience.