I think this is another thing that aspiring novelists are interested in.
Various novelists have said various things, and the atmosphere is quite different depending on their positions.
However, they all have one thing in common: they all say that only a few can become full-time authors.
When a working person becomes a professional after winning a newcomer’s award, he or she is naturally working at the same time.
At that time, the editor of the publishing company tells the writer, “Don’t quit your job.”
Since various writers have said this, it seems that this is almost a certainty.
One example of failure is when a writer says, “I’ve won the New Writer’s Award! I’m going to make a living by writing novels!”
His novel doesn’t sell, his savings are depleted, and he can’t go back to his original company and struggles to find another job.
Editors know many such episodes, so they say, “Don’t quit your job. Write novels as a second job.”
However, not all novelists stay in a dual occupation forever, and at some point they become full-time authors.
What is the timing of those authors who became full-time authors?
As far as I could find out, it seems to vary considerably from person to person.
- A novelist resigns when his income as a novelist exceeds the income from his main job.
- A novelist was working part-time and being a novelist at the same time. The restaurant where he worked part-time closed, so he became a full-time novelist.
- Retire from your main job when you have saved enough money to eat for a few years.
Since each writer’s living situation is different, there seems to be no guideline as to how much annual income is required to become a full-time writer.
It is said that there are some people who have become full-time writers even with a very low income.
As you can see, the situation differs from writer to writer, but in order to become a full-time writer, you need to sell a certain amount of books.
For this reason, it is said that it is extremely difficult to become a full-time writer of pure literature.
Since the number of copies of pure literature works tends to be small, it would be quite difficult to make a full-time career out of pure literature royalties.
With exceptions such as Haruki Murakami, most authors of pure literature seem to have dual careers.