The Death and Rebirth of the Author (Part 2)
Two years ago, I wrote a piece about how difficult it is for writers to earn a living these days. I noted:
A survey by the UK Authors Licensing and Collecting Society (ACLS) found that the average income for a professional author is £10,500. It’s fallen by 42% since 2005. In the US, it’s slightly better: a whopping $16,800 a year, or £12,800. That’s total earnings. It’s well below the poverty line. It’s five grand less than a street-sweeper earns.
I wrote the piece while wondering how the hell I was going to make a living and support a family. My second book hadn’t sold as well as I expected, I was in my 40s, friends of mine were talking about retirement and I still didn’t have much in the way of savings.
And I really didn’t know where to go for advice. Writers are really struggling at the moment, and who do we turn to for help? There’s so little coaching or mentoring out there, and organisations like the Society of Authors aren’t much help. Basically we have to figure it out for ourselves.
Two years on I feel a bit better about it all, even though my research salary from the University of London ends this month. I thought I’d share a bit about what has worked and what so far hasn’t.
In the 2019 piece I talked about some of the different ways authors can earn money these days. These include:
- Newsletters (either through paid subscribers on Patreon and Substack, or through sponsors and affiliate deals)
- YouTube videos
- Media (TV, radio, print)
- Podcasts
- Online and offline talks
- Online and offline courses
- Business key-notes, coaching and consultancy
- Personal tutoring
- Book sales (including self-published books)
- Copy-writing
- Think-tanks
- Academic grants / PhDs
Have I missed any ways out? I’m sure there are others.
I think I’ve now earned money from all these sources, though some have definitely earned me more than others.
My newsletter subscribers have grown, but not a huge amount — only by 15% in two years. I don’t know whether I should write more just for my Patrons, or follow the herd and switch to Substack, or what. I have started earning off Medium, at least, over the last two years — anything between $200 to $1500 a month — and my Medium articles have garnered me a bigger US audience.
I also self-published my ayahuasca book — Holiday from the Self — a year ago. I think it’s a great book but it didn’t earn me much at all.
I tried to get into business keynotes, and even put on a suit (well, a jacket) and made a show-reel. That has brought me precisely zero corporate key-notes. And frankly, in my heart of hearts, I don’t want to do business key-notes. I’ve done them in the past — talks for PWC, Allianz and so on, but I didn’t like the sense of fear you feel from the HR departments hiring you. Nor do I like repeating the same content over and over — I like to keep learning and share the new ideas I am learning.
The big growth areas for me over the last two years have been courses, think-tank work, and personal tutoring.
A year ago, I developed the Philosophies for Life course, an eight-part course exploring the nature of the self, which I run with groups of 10 or so people. I’ve run it four times off-line, and once online, and it’s been a good earner for me, and a fun experience. People like the mixture of ideas, group discussion, and ‘authentic relating’ exercises.
Secondly, I had the good fortune to work with my brother Alex and his think-tank, the Collective Psychology Project. We wrote a report for the Wellcome Trust on how people are coping with COVID, mentally. That was another good earner. Think-tank work earns way more than media work, although it’s rather dry and wonky on the whole (my brother’s think-tank is an exception).
Finally, philosophy tutoring. Back in May of this year one of my newsletter subscribers asked me if I would do one-on-one philosophy sessions online. I was hesitant — people have requested that before and it always sounded a bit like therapy to me, and I’m not a trained therapist. But I agreed, on the understanding it would be a philosophy session, not a therapy session.
Six months on, I have several regular clients and one regular group client, and these are some of the topics we’ve covered.
I’ve really enjoyed the philosophy sessions — I like learning about new topics myself, and then exploring them with my client. It’s given me the chance to read Edmund Burke, say, or to re-read Albert Ellis this week. And I like learning about my clients’ lives and perspectives. They are a really interesting bunch.
I’ve scheduled a workshop in January 2021 to explore how people (particularly academics) can develop similar revenue streams for themselves. I think this is golden advice and was offering it to be helpful to young academics, but so far no one has signed up! Maybe I pitched the workshop wrong — I initially pitched it mainly to academics, but they are probably quite suspicious of this sort of entrepreneurialism on the whole, or suspicious of paying £40 to learn how to increase their earnings. But I feel that my experience and advice is worth at least that. Anyway, if you are a writer and want to go deeper on some of these earning possibilities, sign up.
Looking ahead, I feel hopeful. I’m working on this book about Aldous Huxley and his friends, which I think will do well. I hope to aim it squarely at the American spirituality market — I’m kind of fed up with the UK market, where my agent doesn’t even follow me on Twitter, let alone actively promote me. I also want to invest in and launch a new course, drawing on the content about Huxley and his friends, which I also hope will do well.
I am watching the growth of the psychedelic therapy market with great interest and some trepidation. I would like to work on helping people who have adverse experiences or ‘spiritual emergencies’ — at the moment, the market invests billions into hyping the amazing healing potential of mystical trips, but hardly invests a dime in supporting people when they have difficult experiences.
I would also like to continue exploring the shadow side of western spirituality — spiritual emergencies, conspirituality, and spiritual elitism — and how to protect people from these shadow aspects. I feel like I’m finding my voice in the spirituality landscape — bringing a philosophical, historical, occasionally critical, but also personal lens to the field.
I’m also always interested to compare notes. For the writers or creatives among you — how are you earning money these days? What has exceeded your expectations? What didn’t work?