New York, California, Texas, Illinois, Florida.
Median wage for a writer: $55,000
Info taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
How do you measure up? Personally, I don't live in one of those states, and last quarter I came closer to the $55 part of that salary figure instead of the three zeros. Obviously I'm not in the writing game for the real estate or money. Which begs the question...
Why do writers write?
I can't speak for all writers, but there are a few basic reasons that drive a person to toil over a keyboard without any hope of fair compensation.
It's a vacation.
I can go to foreign lands and meet exotic characters, all without having some up close and personal time with a rubber-gloved TSA agent.
It's a mild sedative.
Writing is way for me to unwind. I can't write if I'm focused on current problems in my life, so I package them up and set them down for awhile to focus on my characters' issues. It's amazing how trivial my current concerns are compared to extortion, disease, and murder.
It's cheaper than therapy.
There are stories in my head, begging to be released. I need to find out how those stories end, so I write them down. There's always a party in my gray matter. A psychiatrist would have a field day exploring the nooks and crannies of my mind.
It's a loan-free education.
Besides English, history is my favorite course of study. Writing a new scene involves research. I figure that by keeping my mind sharp in this way, I ought to stave off alzheimer's for at least another year or two.
Wait a minute...I see a few dots that just might be able to be connected. If I were to give a monetary value to all the listed reasons and add them up, I suspect I really would be making $55k a year.
Huh. Maybe I should go ahead and move to Laguna Beach after all.
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Yep, that's it. Well, that and I can't NOT write.
So...you moving with me to the land of fun and sun?
As Ane suggested, some of us write because we have to. It's a strange, incurable condition. The only way to treat it is to succumb to it and write.
But the stats I've seen say the median annual income for a fiction writer (not a writer in general, which covers a lot of ground) is $10,000.
The U.S. Department of Labor doesn't recognize the distinction, dearest. You know the old saying, "Close enough for government work." Apparently lumping all writers together is good enough for them.
Even so, I still don't make 10k a year on writing. But who knows...2012 could be my lucky ducky year, eh?
I love to learn! That's a big reason I write. To learn and have a conversation with God. I usually start with a question which drives my controlling mind crazy because I haven't figured out how to start with a question I can't answer and NOT write SOTP. I end up with a tug of war because I'm always wishing to have it all plotted out. :)
I thought for sure Idaho would be the top state. lol :) Not really but we do have some awesome authors close by. Frank Peretti, Brandilyn Collins and Robin Lee Hatcher to name a few.
I think I made $25 bucks last year but whose counting? :)
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