decade in review: part 2

Part 1 was all about the skills I learnt and the works I’d had published in my writing life. Part 2 is gonna be about finance, baby!

When you’re starting out writing, it’s very hard to get any idea of what a “writer’s income” looks like. And, to be fair, they all look very different. So this is just my earnings and I’m only talking about my own experience, but perhaps it will give you some ballpark ideas.

From 2009–2015 the numbers are pretty vague, because it was a while ago, but I feel like they’re generally accurate. From 2016 and up, I tracked my finances through financial years (Jun-July) so these stats will be from those time periods.

2009–2012

• I didn’t make any money. I had a few short stories published and I even won a lil prize! But no money.

2013

• The first time I was published for writing! I sold a short story for $15.

2014

• I sold a couple of short stories/articles to my uni’s magazine, I’d say I made maybe $60 or so?
• This was the year I started making zines! Which technically bring in money but it’s not a lot, and it’s not something I keep track of.

2015

• Again sold a few more things to the uni mag, made about the same $60.
• Also, zines!

2016–2017 financial year

• I signed a contract for Ida with Echo Publishing
• I was at my first writing fest, and I got paid: National Young Writers Festival
• I started to do more writers fests
• I published a few articles
• And did some zines
• All up, I made about $5000

2017–2018 financial year

• I won the people’s choice prize at the VPLAs, which was a nice prize of $2000
• I signed another contract for Highway Bodies and Euphoria Kids with Echo Publishing
• I was doing more events — these make up the bulk of my earnings, and are mostly writing festival appearances
• All up: $7000

2018–2019 financial year

• This year I started to earn royalties from Ida
• And I started to get PLR/ELR money — that is money from the govt for when people borrow your book from a library.
• I was asked to do a few workshops, for Centre for Youth Literature and some schools and festivals
• I was invited to a lot of festivals which again made up the bulk of my earnings.
• Michael Earp got a grant for the anthology Kindred, to pay for the authors to go to festivals around the country. So I’m sure this played a huge role in me getting invited to festivals.
• I started a patreon and made about $1500 from it. But I ended up pausing that project indefinitely, just because I’d made my workload too much
• All up: $14,000

2019–2020

• So far I’ve made about $4000, from festival appearances last year, some royalties and some short stories
• I applied to the Australia Council to get funding for my next project and received $35,000

This is the first year where I will be able to write full-time and not have a day job, and the reality hasn’t quite sunk in yet. I still have four days of work to go, and my grant money will be in my bank account within the next few days. (edit: while I was writing this the money came through!)

With my day jobs over the years, I usually earn from them around $25,000 per financial year. Last year with the $14,000 I got from writing related things, it was the most I’d earnt ever. The job I’ve had since Sep 2018 was also the first job I’ve had that wasn’t casual, so I got sick leave and personal leave, which was excellent. I am a bit sad to leave it, but I’m also really excited.

I feel so lucky to have finally got a grant (I have been applying for them for a looooong time) and I’m really excited to see what happens this year. A nice way to start the new decade.