How I make money writing poetry and novellas

I am five years in on this journey of building an income from my pen. And according to my husband’s research last night, I am in the top 10% of self-published authors earning-wise so I’m trying to squash the voices in my head that tell me I’m not far enough along on this journey to have something worth saying.

Also, I may earn from some of the links on my website. But I only link to products or services I’ve personally used and love. And my books :)

It was 2017 when I published my first book, a micro-chapbook of eight poems and a short story. Aesthetic Blindness was basically my university portfolio. In the first six months I sold over 150 copies, recouping my printing costs. At that point, I had no idea what I was doing and so I had ordered a print run of 1,000 copies. You know, cause that’s what you do. I still have over 500 copies, but no debt from the print run so that puts me ahead of lots of poets and poetry publishers.

I used that momentum to launch a Patreon page in early 2018 and I made $5 a month for about a year. So, steady and reliable income? Yes. Livable? Not yet.

The goal is definitely a livable, reliable income. But it has been slow going. If I wasn’t keeping track of my income I would probably have given up because even though real progress has been made it has been an extremely long time in the making. My Patreon page never grew past that initial patron, but I also wasn’t very good about marketing at that stage in my career. I thought all I had to do was write and readers would come find my books. No. No, not at all how it works!

I was slowly building up a social media following while sharing excerpts of my poetry and when I finally published my first full-length chapbook of poetry it did fairly well, especially in terms of self-published poetry from a still as-of-yet unknown poet. I found out that the small following of readers I have are extremely engaged, which is such a blessing. That has made the biggest difference.

Building a career in writing is such a grass-roots operation. It starts by talking about your writing. I know, I know. It can be so uncomfortable. But if you don’t show an interest in your work, why should anyone else? A discussion about building a social media following is too long to cover here, but meeting readers in person is a crucial step. I’ve seen the most book sales at poetry readings where I can have a table of my books set up. The second best book sale days are when I go to vendor shows or farmers’ markets. In person sales are critical. I also make more sales on my website than I do on other retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I’m trying to make my website a one-stop-shop because I get the money immediately after a website sale instead of having to wait two months for a royalty payment and I get to collect customer information so I can email them when I release a new book. The trade off is that I have to keep copies of my books on hand and fulfill these orders myself. If that’s not something you can do, don’t feel bad about selling your books through other retailers. Do what you have to do to get started and if you need to make changes to how you operate down the road so be it.

So far, I’ve released two micro-chapbooks of poetry + a short story, one full-length book of poetry, and one novella. With each subsequent release, I’ve seen my income rise and begin to become more stable. Currently I make enough to pay for small print runs outright, pay a few small bills monthly, and keep some money in my business savings account. That’s not nothing!

I’m definitely still learning and haven’t ‘arrived’ yet, but it’s so exciting to see a career taking shape even if it’s not on my ideal timeline.

So, how do I make money writing poetry and novellas? I tell people about my books! I go out and find new readers. I do events! Any way you can get the word out, especially if it makes sense in light of your book’s content.

I have been so fortunate to be able to afford to take the time needed to learn more about publishing and make mistakes along the way. Honestly, trial and error has been how I’ve learned most of what has worked. Because we can survive off my husband’s income, I’ve been able to devote more time to writing and publishing than I would be able to if I was only working after hours. The long-term goal is for writing to make up a significant portion of our household income, and it’s starting to pay some real bills! Which is great, as a single income is stretching less and less far with each kid we’ve had.

Here’s the biggest piece of advice I can give you: don’t give up. If this is what you’re supposed to be doing, keep going. There are going to be times where it feels impossible, when you wonder what in the world you are doing, but if writing and self-publishing is your calling in life push through it. Do what you need to to make it work, which might look like not quitting your day job. It might look like building up a pile of manuscripts before publishing any. It may even look like getting a job in a writing-related field while you save up to launch an author career. Because here’s the deal: not every author lives solely by their book sales. Making a living as a writer and author means having multiple streams of income and it takes time to build up those streams.