If You Want To Make A Living As An Author - Don't Quit Your Day Job

Before we begin I'd like to remind you that financial stability is not a guarantee as an author. Even the most successful authors are not guaranteed high returns or long-lasting royalty checks no matter how popular their books are when they are published. Do not assume you have failed if you have not reached stability as an author. 

It might sound harsh for me to sit at home typing away at my desk and tell you that you shouldn't quit your job if you want to make money as an author - but because I am that makes me the perfect person to explain to you why. 

I did not quit my job when I decided to pursue writing. I had, in a way, given up writing when due to financial reasons I had to withdraw from my Creative Writing degree program to work full-time to support myself and help my family with the rising costs of living. I didn't return to complete my degree for almost 7 years. 

I worked my way up the chain of management in a local tourist shop until I was a salaried manager working almost 50 hours a week and finding time to write on the side or during the slow season when tourists weren't coming into the city to buy t-shirts and snowglobes during the New England winter. 

When I did finally decide to pursue writing full-time I was fortunate enough to go into it with enough of a savings net that I wouldn't have to worry about how I was going to afford to eat or if I was going to be able to keep the lights on. 

If you are in this same position then by all means do as you wish as long as you are financially secure enough, but if you aren't then you need to take the time to start your writing career while you still have a stable income. 

Write before work, during, work, after work, or whenever you can. 

Start building your author platform with websites, social media, and blog posts, or get as much written as you can so that when you decide to leap you aren't starting from nothing. 

It takes months to write a book and even then it will continue to take a few months after writing to edit. 

Why not do this on someone else's dime instead of your own while you still can? 

And before you jump on me I don't mean write instead of doing your actual job and risk getting fired, but if you have the ability -  such as a lunch hour -  why not use it to your advantage? 

There are also plenty of successful authors who still decide that they want to work a day job because they can't just sit around the house and write all day. 

The dream of making a full-time income as an author can become a reality, but it's important to test the water before jumping in with both feet especially when the the world just seems to become more and more expensive each day. 

It seems I can't go to the grocery store without my partner announcing that it wasn't that long ago that a chocolate bar was 99¢ and how it's ridiculous that it's $1.99 now. 

He's only 29 - I can't even imagine what he'll start to say when he gets older and the price continues to climb. It will probably sound the same as my father telling me you used to go to a penny candy store and buy candy for a penny. 

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Achieve your goals by setting yourself up for long-term success.  

 Best of luck! 

With love 

B.K. xo xo

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This story was originally posted on Medium.

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