Author income varies widely depending on whether earnings come from books, related services, employee wages, or a long-lived backlist. The Authors Guild’s 2023 survey reports calendar-year 2022 income from published authors, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports wage-and-salary employment separately. Together, the figures show why “author income” is not one comparable number.
Contents
- 2022 author income baseline
- Full-time and self-published authors
- Income by genre
- Race, publishing, and marketing differences
- Backlist and back-in-print income
- Employee wage benchmarks
2022 author income baseline
The Authors Guild survey measures two different income concepts. “Book income” includes advances, royalties, licensing, and subsidiary-rights fees. “Total author-related income” also includes work such as editing, teaching, speaking, coaching, copywriting, and journalism. These are survey medians for calendar year 2022, not forecasts.
Among full-time U.S. authors, the 2022 median book income was $10,000. The median rose to $20,000 when other author-related work was included. For full-time authors of commercial-market books, the corresponding medians were $15,000 from books and $25,000 from total author-related work. This difference indicates how strongly non-book work can contribute to a working author’s income.
The results were lower when all Authors Guild survey respondents were included, including part-time authors. Their 2022 median book income was $2,000, and their median total author-related income was $5,000. These figures should not be read as a direct annual wage: they describe a survey population with different work schedules, publishing histories, and mixes of income.
Source: Key Takeaways from the Authors Guild’s 2023 Author Income Survey.
| Authors Guild respondent group | Median book income, 2022 | Median total author-related income, 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time U.S. authors | $10,000 | $20,000 |
| Full-time commercial-market authors | $15,000 | $25,000 |
| All respondents, including part-time authors | $2,000 | $5,000 |
Full-time and self-published authors
Self-publishing produced a different income profile in the Authors Guild results. Full-time self-published authors reported a 2022 median book income of $12,800. Their median income from all author-related activities was $15,000. The gap between those two measures was therefore narrower than the gap reported for full-time authors overall, although the categories are not identical populations.
Career duration also mattered in the survey. Full-time self-published authors who had been publishing since at least 2018 reported a 2022 median income of $24,000. The same experienced group reported a median income of $13,700 in 2018. The Authors Guild described this as a 76% increase from 2018 to 2022. The comparison covers those two reported years for the experienced group; it does not establish that every year between them rose at the same rate.
The survey also found a platform-related difference. Self-published authors earned 67% more book income from Kindle Unlimited or similar subscription programs than traditionally published authors earned from book income alone. This is a comparison of reported income sources, not a guarantee that subscription distribution will produce higher earnings for an individual author.
Audiobook availability was not universal in either model. Fifty-five percent of traditionally published authors reported having no book available in audiobook form, compared with 64% of self-published authors. These figures describe the share reporting no audiobook availability in 2022, rather than audiobook sales or listening demand.
Income by genre
Genre differences were substantial among full-time authors reporting 2022 income. Romance and romantic-suspense authors had the highest listed median book income at $31,725, with a median combined author-related income of $37,000. Graphic novelists reported $15,000 in median book income and $25,000 in combined income.
Mystery, thriller, and suspense authors reported a $10,000 median book income and a $15,010 median combined income. Literary-fiction authors reported $5,000 from books and $13,500 in combined income. Biography authors reported $3,500 from books and $9,200 in combined income.
The broader literary-works category, covering fiction and/or nonfiction, had a $2,800 median book income and a $10,100 median total income. Because the categories have different audiences and publishing economics, the medians are best used as descriptive benchmarks rather than as expected earnings for a particular title.
| Full-time author category | Median book income, 2022 | Median combined or total income, 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Romance and romantic suspense | $31,725 | $37,000 |
| Graphic novels | $15,000 | $25,000 |
| Mystery, thriller, and suspense | $10,000 | $15,010 |
| Literary fiction | $5,000 | $13,500 |
| Biography | $3,500 | $9,200 |
| Literary works, fiction and/or nonfiction | $2,800 | $10,100 |
Source: Key Takeaways from the Authors Guild’s 2023 Author Income Survey.
Race, publishing, and marketing differences
The Authors Guild reported differences in 2022 income by race among full-time respondents. Black authors reported a median book income of $2,412, compared with $10,985 for White authors. For total author-related income, the medians were $15,250 for Black authors and $20,000 for White authors.
When full-time and part-time respondents were combined, Black authors reported a median book income of $800 and White authors reported $2,000. These comparisons describe the survey respondents and should not be treated as estimates for every Black or White author in the United States.
The survey also reported differences in publishing and marketing measures. White respondents reported a 38% traditional-publishing rate in 2022, compared with 28% for Black respondents. Average book-marketing spending was $7,658 among White authors and $3,182 among Black authors. Marketing spending is an input, not a measured cause of the income gap, so these figures alone do not show how spending affected earnings.
Source: Key Takeaways from the Authors Guild’s 2023 Author Income Survey.
Backlist and back-in-print income
The Authors Guild’s backlist results measure income over the life of a book, not annual income. Among responding Authors Guild members who reported backlist sales, the median lifetime income was $40,000. A reported 34.6% earned more than $100,000 from backlist sales over the life of the book, while the highest reported backlist-sales income was $5,000,000.
Back-in-print income had a lower median but a wide range. The median reported lifetime income was $5,000, and 37.0% of respondents reported more than $10,000. The highest reported back-in-print income was $500,000 when one $10,000,000 outlier was excluded; one responding author reported $10,000,000.
Backlist and back-in-print books together represented a major share of income for many respondents. The median share of income from those sources combined was 50%, and 35.7% said that more than 80% of their income came from backlist and back-in-print sales. These figures emphasize the long-term value of rights and catalog availability, but lifetime figures cannot be compared directly with the Authors Guild’s 2022 annual medians.
Source: Authors Guild Members Show Importance of Backlist and Back-in-Print Book Sales.
Employee wage benchmarks
The BLS provides a separate benchmark for wage-and-salary employment in the Writers and Authors occupation, SOC 27-3043. Its May 2024 national figures do not include freelance or royalty income, so they are not directly comparable with the Authors Guild’s author-income medians.
The BLS estimated 47,800 U.S. Writers and Authors jobs in May 2024. The mean hourly wage was $41.24 and the mean annual wage was $85,780. The median hourly wage was $34.75, while the median annual wage was $72,270. Annual wages ranged from $41,080 at the 10th percentile and $52,890 at the 25th percentile to $98,320 at the 75th percentile and $133,680 at the 90th percentile.
| BLS national measure for Writers and Authors | May 2024 value |
|---|---|
| Estimated jobs | 47,800 |
| Mean hourly wage | $41.24 |
| Median hourly wage | $34.75 |
| Mean annual wage | $85,780 |
| 10th-percentile annual wage | $41,080 |
| 25th-percentile annual wage | $52,890 |
| Median annual wage | $72,270 |
| 75th-percentile annual wage | $98,320 |
| 90th-percentile annual wage | $133,680 |
Source: Occupational Employment and Wages - May 2024.
State-level BLS figures are older, from May 2023, and describe published Writers and Authors employment. California had the highest published employment among states, with 8,820 jobs and a $108,640 annual mean wage. New York had 7,540 jobs and a $121,070 annual mean wage. Florida had 2,700 jobs and a $66,550 mean wage; Illinois had 2,390 jobs and a $69,630 mean wage; and North Carolina had 2,300 jobs and a $68,100 mean wage.
The District of Columbia had the highest reported concentration, at 5.61 times the national occupational share, with a $105,100 annual mean wage. New York’s location quotient was 2.47, Oregon’s was 1.66, California’s was 1.51, and Virginia’s was 1.48. Their annual mean wages were $121,070, $85,460, $108,640, and $85,930, respectively.
Source: Writers and Authors.