How to Make Money Writing in 2025

For most authors, income from book sales should never be regarded as the mainstay of their earnings.

Royalties are modest at best and tend to arrive infrequently.

On a book that retails at £19.99, the average royalty for a traditionally published author is around 7.5 percent, which works out at roughly £1.50 per copy sold.

That’s before you consider that many publishers calculate royalties not on the cover price but on what they actually receive from retailers, which reduces the amount further.

Payments are often made only once or twice a year and, if you’ve been given an advance, you won’t see a penny in royalties until that advance has been earnt on sales.

All of this means that unless you’re selling in the tens of thousands, book royalties are not a reliable or regular source of income. Instead, most working writers sustain themselves by making use of their skills across a wide range of outlets. Blogging, feature writing, journalism and copywriting all offer more predictable fees, whether paid per article or on a retainer basis. Editing and proofreading services can provide steady work too, paid per project, per word, or by the hour, while ghostwriting, though variable, can be highly lucrative when the projects come in.

Teaching is another avenue. Writers often run workshops, lead community groups, or teach courses at schools, universities or online, all of which provide session fees that are far more consistent than royalties.

More modern approaches include producing digital content such as podcasts, online courses, or subscription newsletters via platforms like Substack or Patreon, which allow writers to build a community of supporters and enjoy regular income.

Even library lending can add a little extra through the UK’s Public Lending Right scheme, which pays authors each time their books are borrowed.

In the end, the crucial point is that being a writer opens the door to an enormous range of possibilities beyond the narrow lane of book royalties. You may have written a novel, but your skills can just as easily be applied to commercial copy, specialist features, editorial support, or teaching. Diversifying in this way not only brings in the stability you need to keep writing but also broadens your craft and strengthens your voice.

And yet, despite all this, books remain the heart of why most of us write. A novel or memoir may never pay the bills on its own, but it is where the art and joy of creativity truly lie. Approaching book writing as a passion first, rather than as a financial lifeline, allows you to create with freedom and authenticity.

The income you make elsewhere keeps you afloat, but the books you write remain the truest expression of your voice and imagination-and play a vital part in developing you as a writer until you reach a place where a book may make all the difference.

I wish you every joy and success.

If you are a non-fiction author you can use your book as a platform to get speaking engagements even before your book is published. Once it is published, ask the business you are speaking for to purchase books for each of the conference attendees and then include this purchase in your speaking "package."

If by "best," we mean "fastest," then self-publishing is the way to go, since there're no gatekeepers, meaning no wait time. As soon as your book's done, you can get it up for sale. But if we mean best as in "long-term for your career," that becomes a fuzzier proposition because you need to weight the wait time, rejection, potential rewrites/edits, and possibility of never having something accepted inherent in traditional publishing against the prestige that still comes with making it into that world. It also depends what level of control you want for your work. You obviously get much more with self-publishing, but perhaps you'd benefit from the edit you might get from an editor at a legacy press. Lots of variables here, but my advice is always to be honest with yourself regarding your goals.

Legacy prestige is great and all—and, if it goes well, can be much more lucrative—but there's a lot to be said for having full control of your product.

The most common mistake authors make when pricing their self-publishing books is not pricing it so that they are covering all of their outlaid costs. Some authors only look at comparative titles in the marketplace and how they are priced. Indeed, this is an important step in figuring out what to price a book, but if you are not making a return on investment to at least to recoup your spend, not to mention a profit, then your list price is failing you.

My answer, as usual, is based solely on Amazon, where 80-100% of sales happen for most authors.

1. Missing KDP's thresholds for Kindle

Amazon pays you 70% of the retail Kindle price - if the price is in the range $2.99 - $9.99.

If the price is lower than $2.99 or $10 and higher - you will receive only 35% in royalties.

Kindle book which is more expensive than $10 and below $29 has no economic justification from the self-publishing point of view.

2. The same price for the paperback and Kindle

Those are two distinct products. Kindle should be cheaper than paperback. There are no production or distribution costs involved for an eBook.

Plus, Amazon customers are trained to expect cheap and discounted stuff, especially for such a flagship category like Kindle books.

3. Pricing too low

This happens more with hard copies. In 2025, Amazon introduced new royalty structure: 50% royalties for books cheaper than $9.99, and 60% for $9.99+ books.

The trick is in fine print, as usual. Those percentages are counted after deducting the printing (and distribution) fee. So, when the same book costs $8 or $12, your royalties will be dramatically different. Let's say the printing cost is $3: in the $8 scenario you will get half of the five dollars; in the $12 scenario, you will receive 60% of nine dollars ($2.5 vs. $6).

Avoid the less-than-$9.99 price range, unless you have particularly good reason to price your book so low.

With Kindle there is a dramatic difference between $2.99 book and $2.49 book because of the thresholds mentioned in point #1 (about $2 vs. 87 cents).

Personally, I find only one price point below $2.99 worth trying: 99 cents. It is good for entry point of a series or for promotional purposes.

4. Pricing too high

It applies especially to Kindle format. First, because the royalties’ thresholds penalize higher prices. Second, because Kindle readers are cheap.

First-time authors think: "It's just $5, a price of the coffee, surely people will be willing to buy my book." They forget that they don't sell coffee, but eBooks. Amazon customers have millions of other titles free or priced incredibly low to choose from.

In case of paperbacks, it is more about the subject matter and length of the book. If you try to sell your 70-page novella for $20, good luck. Non-fiction books solving specific problems are more "justified" to cost more.

In the fiction genres the competition is fiercer. Readers have plenty of alternatives, so if you overdo your price, they may skip your book and pick your competitor’s book.

5. Pricing out of market

If you aren't a household name, you'd better accommodate to market's expectations. Don't price your debut novel, or poetry book, or children book $50 - it is just too expensive.

Don't price your business manual $0.99 - people will think it's so cheap because it's trash.

Let's start with the "big three": WordPress, Squarespace, and Wix. Each has its own pros and cons. I'd start with identifying the goal of your website, the complexity of your design, and your comfort level.

WordPress

With countless themes and plugins to choose from, WordPress allows for almost limitless design, but this comes at a cost as plugins and themes must be updated regularly.

I recommend the free Astra theme and Elementor with an upgrade to the Pro version. This mimics the feel of the Squarespace and Wix interface, but with so many more capabilities. If mobile first is your goal, this is a great choice as you can create an entirely different experience.

There is no built-in function for SEO, but there are countless plugins to choose from. I typically use Yoast SEO.

Your WordPress site is only as good as your host provider. Be cautious about what may seem like a bargain. Companies like GoDaddy and Bluehost seem less expensive but don't include backups, added security, SSL, etc. The add-ons can add up.

I recommend that all of my WordPress clients choose WP Engine. They offer a daily backup, a staging environment for future updates/design. They also offer an add-on "Smart Plugin Manager" that keeps everything up to date and will restore from a backup if there's ever an issue (cost $100 annually).

Squarespace

Squarespace is a great choice for authors' sites. The user interface is drag-and-drop, and most clients find it easy to self-manage and make changes going forward.

Need a blog, a store, or a scheduling tool? Interested in custom merch, forms, social media feeds, and links? No problem, it's all built in and ready for you when needed.

The downside of Squarespace is site speed, and though you can customize on mobile, it is somewhat restrictive.

Squarespace covers the basics for SEO: H1, SEO descriptions and titles, alt-text, etc. There is a free (or paid) Chrome extension called SEO Space that is a game-changer for Squarespace's SEO. If you choose Squarespace, I HIGHLY recommend this tool!

Wix

I have a love-hate relationship with Wix. It shares a similar drag-and-drop design tool and a variety of pre-built sections and components, which can help jumpstart your creativity.

Unlike other web building tools, it allows you to draw way outside the lines, meaning there are no restrictions to brand guidelines, so you can choose as many fonts and colors as you like. This can lead to style overload, and why I often get hired to clean up Wix sites.

Wix allows for customization on mobile. More so than Squarespace, less so than WordPress/Elementor.

The biggest advantage to Wix, as I see it, is the built-in SEO tool. In my experience, Wix sites tend to show up on search engines more quickly if you follow their guidelines. They are also the only platform that attempts to address ADAA compliance issues.

Summary

Understand your priorities and find a tool that you enjoy working with that best meets your needs.

This all depends on what backend you're most comfortable with. Youtube has some great video tutorials for Wordpress/Squarespace/Wix, which will offer an overview of what it's like to create or update a page. That's where I'd start, as you want something that's easy for you to update.

Self-hosted Wordpress will give you the most control. This is especially important if you have 5+ books. Some designers can offer automation—meaning they can set the site up so you only have to add a new book page and the book's cover/info automatically appear everywhere it needs to across the site. (Double check with your designer to make sure they offer this.) Which is great if you have a long series or multiple books.

However, Wordpress doesn't have a default visual editor. (Some plugins/themes offer visual editing with mixed results.) Most hosting options are solid—look for free SSL, and if there's a limit on emails addresses or domain names/sites. Space is nice, but most sites don't hit 2gb (unless there are multiple sites and a separate store). 5gb is usually more than enough. It's nice to have the option for multiple sites, in case you want to have a separate store later (or a separate site for a pen name).

For specific host recommendations, I've had good luck with Hostgator, SiteGround, MDDHosting, and Inmotion. While Bluehost is often recommended online, it's been very slow this year (2024) especially for the price. I've heard good things about Cloudways, Hostinger, and A2 Hosting. Wordpress.com is also viable with their business plan, though it won't give you as much control as a standard host.

For page builders (visual editors), I tend to recommend Squarespace over Wix, as I find Squarespace more intuitive since Wix's update (introducing Studio) this past spring (2024). Page builders offer no automation, which means adding a new book can be a laborious process depending on where you want the book's info to appear. For example, if you only want the cover on the book page and the home page, that's only two pages to update. If you have a series and want each book in the series to have a "read more" section with the other books in the series, then you have to update the cover manually on each of the series' book pages. Not a big deal for a small library, but rather a pain for a larger one.

At baseline though, start with YouTube. Skim tutorials on what it's like to create/update a page on the platform you're interested in. This will give you a better sense of how the platforms operate. Whatever is easiest for you to operate is (almost) always the best option.

Querying is the first step of a journey through traditional publishing. After you've sent out your queries, the next steps might look something like this:

1. Full requests: Literary agents who are interested in your query will request the full manuscript from you so they can read the whole book and decide whether to offer representation.
2. Offer of representation: After reading your book, the literary agent has decided they would like to represent you and take you on as a client, so they send you an offer of representation. This is a good time to follow up with any other pending queries and let them know that you've received an offer of representation. Generally, you should give other agents 2 weeks to get back to you after you've let them know you've received a competing offer of representation.
3. Submissions: Once you've signed with a literary agent, your agent goes out with your manuscript on submission. This might happen right away (if your agent believes your manuscript is ready) or after a round or two of revisions. The amount of time this might take varies greatly.
4. Editor interest: Editors who are interested in your book may have to drum up internal support at their publishing house before they can make an offer. This could look like the editor bringing the project to their editorial meeting, then presenting it at an acquisitions meeting. This could take up to 2 weeks depending on the process at that particular publishing house. You may have a call with the editor as well to make sure your visions are compatible.
5. Book deal offer: Your prospective editor will send an offer to your agent, and they will negotiate.
6. Editing begins: Once you've come to an agreement on the book deal, you will begin working with your editor. All in all, it generally takes about 2 years between a book deal and the book's publication date. This looks like about 1 year of editing and revising, and then 6 months of the book moving through different stages of production, and then it goes out to the printer, is physically produced, and ships to distributors, who then sell to booksellers, who then stock the book.

Of course, the timelines for the items I've listed here vary greatly. But generally speaking, it's safe to assume at least 2 years between book deal and publication...plus the amount of time you've had between querying and getting that book deal. This is part of the reason I encourage authors not to chase trends and instead to focus on writing compelling characters—traditional publishing is slow, so write from the heart. Strong character work and a good command of craft will appeal regardless of the shifting trend cycles.

Allow a publisher's editorial board 30 - 60 days to finalize an offer and negotiate details. After that, expect 8 to 16 months before your cover sees the light of day. Why so long? Legitimate publishers allocate marketing and trade sales resources on their calendar. They also sometime like to schedule titles based on best selling seasons for a particular genre.

The issue with following current trends is that the trend may be over before you get your book completed and out to the world. If you write what you are passionate about, the story will usually end up being stronger because you are writing a story that means a lot to you, as opposed to writing something just because you think it might sell.

However, you want to be sure the story you are passionate about still has a strong possibility of selling by avoiding cliches and plots that have been overworked and overdone.

Strong stories that readers can relate to will have a good chance of finding an audience no matter the genre.

Other than an on-cover credit "with" or "and," most often credit is given in the acknowledgements. And often you have written your own acknowledgement for the client. On occasion, there is a foreword that explains the writing process and credit appears there.

Most ghostwriters aren't worried about getting credit, but it is always nice to be on the cover. If that is not possible, maybe a mention in the acknowledgements. Sometimes clients even talk about their ghostwriters when they are promoting the books, which is lovely.

Absolutely! A few options:

1. The client could mention your contributions in the Acknowledgments section.
2. The client could name you as a collaborative or contributing writer, rather than a ghostwriter.
3. The client might credit the book as "By [Client Name] with [Your Name].

To use a personal example, a few novels I ghostwrote have the author's name on the cover, but on the title page it says [Author Name] in big font below the title, and "with Michelle Schusterman" in smaller font below that.

Sure, some of my clients have called me their "writing partner," their "editor," or their "consultant." Any of those are fine with me.

It's always nice if the author says something specific about how instrumental I was in completing the project so that outside readers understand I'm not just a friend or acquaintance and that I did contribute in a substantial way to the book's development.

As a ghostwriter, I’ve found there are a few different ways credit can be given.

Personally, I always appreciate having my name on the cover—usually in smaller print beneath the author’s name, such as “with Edward Couzens-Lake”.

It makes it clear that the book was a collaboration while still keeping the focus on the author. That said, I don’t expect this, and I’ve worked on as many projects where I’ve been acknowledged as I have where I haven’t been mentioned at all—not on the cover, in the acknowledgements, in press releases, or even at the launch.

Often, this is simply because the subject doesn’t want any indication that they didn’t write the book themselves, which is perfectly acceptable and understandable. After all, I’m paid to promote their voice, not my own.

Other alternatives I’ve seen or experienced include:

1. A mention in the acknowledgements section.
2. A discreet line on the copyright page (e.g., “with assistance from…”).
3. A private testimonial, reference, or recommendation, which can be just as valuable for future work as public credit.
4. Agreement that the ghostwriter can list the project in their portfolio (sometimes anonymously, sometimes not).

Ultimately, the way credit is given depends on the client’s comfort level and the agreement made at the outset. For me, the most important thing is ensuring the client feels the book reflects their voice and vision—credit is always secondary to that.

I've been ghostwriting through Reedsy for the last four years and off and on before that for clients I met through my own work. For me, there are three primary considerations for fiction:

1. How much does the client have written on the novel?
2. How much time will it take me to write the book?
3. Does the idea intrigue me?

If I find the idea intriguing and the idea is all the client has, I usually propose a synopsis based on the 15 beats of storytelling. It runs around 35 pages and essentially provides a blueprint for writing the novel. I do this synopsis for my own work. It means that halfway through the writing, I won't have to toss out 100 pages because the story no longer works. With a synopsis that outlines the 15 critical beats of a story, the client can then either write the book herself or turn it over to the ghostwriter. The synopsis saves time and ultimately saves the client money.

For non-fiction, the consideration is different. It's helpful if the client presents an outline of the chapters, even if it's rough. If I have to spend hours on zoom with the client to hear a story, the cost is higher.

Sometimes, when a client says they don't have money to cover the price I'm asking, we negotiate. But in the end, the main consideration for me is time. Will it take me two months or six to write the book? When I take on a ghostwriting project, I put my own work on hold and focus on the client's project.

I have worked with many indie authors in the past and it really depends on their level of knowledge about the editing process. But typically I would explain in detail what developmental editing, copyediting, proofreading, or an editorial assessment entails. I encourage any author to contact me with questions or comments. I also give advice on how many rounds of editing I think will be necessary to bring the manuscript up to publishing standards so that it can either be self-published or sent to agents and publishers.

Some writers find it useful to arrange a call either before or after the first round of editing. Others like to get some publishing advice or help with the query letter after the editing process is complete.

I really just try to adapt the whole process as much as possible to their personal situation (mostly budget and writing time) without compromising the quality of the result.

Great question! I'll refer to the guidance I've given a few recent first-time indie authors.

My super objective in guidance for first-time authors is to convey broad revision tools--the big picture of story construction--and to illuminate practical scene work techniques. On the macro level, I focus on structure and character arcs, and on the granular level, I focus on scene design and narrative point of view.

By structure, I mean not just story plot but story parts and how they progress. To do this, I encourage various outlines before rewriting. Here are two outline examples:

1. A quadrant breakdown that spells out the progressive phases of the story problem.
2. A chart that follows the lead character's pursuit of an initial goal to the realization of her ultimate need.

So in the structure outline that I recommend, I might ask the author to break the larger story problem into four pieces, each one mounting from its emergence in the first quarter (1Q) to a much bigger problem in the fourth (4Q). Charting a worsening problem this way can help the author pin down key story beats or turning points. Same with the character's story goal: If the author can distinguish between what the protagonist is pursing in 1Q and later in 3Q, a natural arc forms, and it's easier to identify what revelations need to happen, and where.

For guidance on scene design, I refer to my in-line feedback on the ms and point the author to four concepts:

1. Intention: the focal character's goal in that scene, and how it is projected, ideally through action, early on.
2. Complication: carefully chosen moments where a particular pursuit might best be interrupted by an obstacle.
3. Decision: where desire (intention) meets obstacle (complication); often the key to redesigning the whole scene.
4. Expectation-Reversal: the outcome of the desire-obstacle-decision sequence that is usually an action and, ideally, helps the author know how to rewrite the scene in a way that sets up an expectation for a different outcome, leading to a sense of reversal or surprise when the intended outcome arrives.

For narrative point of view, lately I've been leaning into the language of the fictional camera, as opposed to a film or "objective" camera. My guidance for first-time authors is scene-specific and goes like this:

1. The lead has a camera on her shoulder that is wired to her brain; she is the only focal character for this scene.
2. This camera moves with the lead's head and sees (with the reader) only what she sees.
3. The camera details external events but zooms in at key moments to relate the lead's internal sensory reactions and thoughts. (I show this process with examples.)
4. The goal of external-internal camera zooming is to connect the reader to the lead by using the lead as a visual, mental, and emotional guide.

My aim in all my guidance is to get authors thinking about the experience they want to create for the reader in the next draft--and to keep my ideas practical and actionable.

This is a big question. I like to advise all potential clients about the whole editing process in a simple, non-intimidating, and open way because it's important that authors understand how an editor can help them improve their manuscripts. So, first, I try to get a good idea of the level of work each manuscript will need.

First-time authors often need the gamut of editorial input, beginning with an editorial assessment or a story critique. This will give authors a bird's-eye view of their story to see if it is structurally and narratively sound. I want to make sure authors are happy with their plotting, their character development, and story arcs before we get into the nitty-gritty of craft and grammar, etc.

Once that big-picture stuff is out of the way, I take a look at the prose from a mechanical perspective and make sure their sentences--the storyTELLING itself--is as effective as it can be. This includes line editing, which is a paragraph- and sentence-level tune-up to make the action, the dialogue, and the scene-craft proceed and flow logically and with the maximum emotional payoff (so that things like suspense, surprise, reveals, etc. are all addressed optimally). Authors are usually really pleased when they realize how much an editor can help here.

Finally, we get to the polishing phase of the draft, which includes copyediting (looking for punctuation and grammar goofs) and proofreading (looking for typos and last-minute copy edits). This is when the author and editor have both gone over the whole draft and gotten it into solid narrative shape.

First-time author should never fear or be intimidated by the editing process if the editor is transparent in demystifying the whole process, bringing the writer into the process so that he/she doesn't feel like they've lost ownership of their story. All that said, editing is as important a part of the publishing path as the writing itself, and it can be as creatively stimulating as the writing that first draft.