[Current Culture] How Do Writers Make a Living?

After giving career-related lectures at middle and high schools, students raise their hands saying they want to become writers. It feels tender, as if I am seeing my younger self. They always ask the same question: "But can you make a living as a writer? How much money do you earn?" It is no different from the worries and fears I had. Yes, the path is difficult, but once you make it, can you sustain yourself?

What I realized after publishing my first book is that books really do not sell well. It even reached number two on the social issues bestseller list and was selected as the author of the year by a certain newspaper, but the money I earned from that book in a year was about 10 million won. Since 10,000 copies were sold, I received exactly 10% royalties according to the standard contract. Although it is not a small amount, if someone works hard and earns an annual salary of 10 million won, it is certainly less than the minimum wage.

However, being a writer does not necessarily mean making a living solely from royalties. Writers are invited to schools, libraries, and other institutions to share their stories. These institutions have rating systems for speakers. According to that, I am classified as a Special Lecturer 2 or General Lecturer 1, and receive about 500,000 won including transportation and manuscript fees. Recently, a certain celebrity caused a stir by giving a lecture at a high school for 180,000 won, but that would be when lowering oneself to the lowest grade, and he would likely qualify for Special Lecturer 2 without any problem. He said he was giving free lectures, but since there are many people who desperately need and value such opportunities, that seems like a rude expression. Returning to the topic, if a writer wants to earn 500,000 won from books priced at 15,000 won each, they need to sell about 400 copies. Assuming the first print run is 2,000 copies, that is 20% of the total quantity. Moreover, schools sometimes purchase about 50 copies for students, so writers generally earn more as speakers rather than as writers.

A novelist I met recently said that at some point, they started writing stories suitable for movies or dramas. With the emergence of video OTT services like Netflix and Wavve, new opportunities have opened up for writers. This seems especially true for genre novelists. Once they sell the rights, they earn tens of millions of won, and if they also work on the screenplay, they make even more money. I heard that nowadays, when signing publishing contracts, there is a lot of negotiation about secondary copyrights. Video adaptation rights have become the biggest source of livelihood for writers. That novelist said that even though the work they are writing is not yet complete, the rights have already been sold based on a summary of the story. When he offered to buy me a meal, we really enjoyed some delicious food together.

The livelihood of a profession is not determined solely by what is visible. Today’s writers are not only people who write but also “speakers” based on their created works and “sellers of copyrights.” Of course, there are not many writers who perfectly balance these three roles in the industry. However, writers who consistently create their stories seem to eventually see the light.

When young people worried about making a living as writers become creators of their own stories, the writer may have become some new person unknown to us. Still, since the person who owns their writing?the intellectual property we call IP?will inevitably be the writer, I only cheer for them and myself to keep writing joyfully and steadily.

Kim Minseop, Social and Cultural Critic