the math if we're mathing

More than a year ago, I was at an onsite event for my day job, hanging out with coworkers who I don't often see in person. (Since 2020, I've worked remotely full-time). We were at a pub in Boston, catching up. A coworker and I were commiserating about the high cost of living in New York.

"But you must be okay," they said. "Because you're a writer."

I'd posted something about writing on LinkedIn around then (hilariously, having mostly left social media, I have nowhere else to post my writing news these days except LinkedIn. I need help, guys—more on that at the end of the post). It's always a bit funny and weird for me when people from my tech life recognize my writing, but after all, I do self-promote.

"Oh no," I said. "The writing pays hardly anything. All my expenses are covered by my tech salary."

"But you have a book out," the coworker continued, with genuine feeling. "You're a published writer. I'm sure it's nice money on top of the tech stuff."

I decided not to push it because we didn't know each other too well, and the pub was loud. Also, it seemed like insisting on the truth might come across as humility rather than honesty. The topic moved on to tech salaries and whether we'd be able to expense our drinks (us out-of-towners had a food stipend, but was alcohol okay?). It did niggle at me though. How much do people think writing fiction actually makes, money-wise? Especially for a short story writer like myself? What does having a book out mean, financially?

Obviously the answer is "It depends!" But I figured it might be interesting to share my actual numbers, to provide at least one data point about how much a story collection can make.

Context about me, my dayjob, and my short fiction career

• I've worked full time in the tech industry from 2013-2018, and 2020 until now. Between 2018-2020 I got an MBA (and in 2019 did a summer internship).
• I moved through three distinct roles: Customer Success (which, for my first start-up, was a hybrid of front-line support + account management); Product Marketing (PMM); and Product Management (PM), which I've done for my last 7 years of working.
• PM is a solid role in tech. It sits next to Engineering and Design, and in the last few years the salary has increased, such that even entry-level roles can now potentially make six figures. This wasn't the case in the 2010s start-up world I inhabited, but it seems to have evolved that way. Comp varies greatly based on geography, company size and maturity, prior experience, and lots of other factors, but the figure you'd get from Googling is a reasonable ballpark.
• I've been writing short fiction since the mid-2000's. I was first published in 2009, professionally published in Nightmare Magazine in 2014, and from then on routinely had a story or two out each year (in magazines or anthologies) until 2018. I stopped for a bit because of aforementioned grad school, but that coincided with Small Beer Press reaching out inquiring about a collection.
• While publishing in the 2010's, I was never up for a major sff award (though I got close once or twice). I worked with great editors and was in a lot of dream publications, but I mention this to provide context that it's not like I had a major breakout story or did the awards rounds in any given year, prior to my collection coming out.
• TL;DR: I currently make a solid tech salary. Any income from short fiction has basically been a bonus for me on top of my steady paycheck.

My book deal

• Small Beer Press offered me a $4k advance for Never Have I Ever. This was paid out in two installments: contract signing (2020), and upon the book's publication (2021).
• I received the full $4k because I did not have an agent.
  • Please note: I do not advise people do this. I did it because (a) I knew my editors personally, and felt comfortable dealing with them professionally; (b) I had two business degrees and didn't mind reading and negotiating contracts. A friend who had worked at a lit agency kindly reviewed the contract for anything unusual.
  • I don't regret doing it. But for most people I would generally advise you get an agent (or at least engage one) anytime you have a book deal in hand.
• My collection has 13 stories, written between 2011 and 2020. We considered some stories written from 2008-2011 (my first-ever published story is now available online). My point in sharing this detail is that this collection contains almost a decade worth of short story writing.
• Small Beer Press was absolutely a dream publisher for me. I am forever grateful they were interested in my work, and was very satisfied with my pub process. (In other words: I would have gone with them for much less. But also, I was working full time again shortly after grad school; I didn't need the money.)

Book money I made besides the advance

• NHIE earned out ~8 months after publication, which was a delight and a surprise.
  • I have diary entries detailing how, in the inevitable insanity leading up to publication, I was fairly certain no one would buy this book (except for, like, the 100-150 people who know me and would purchase it because they like me as a person).
  • You really have no sense of readership in the short fiction world, but it still boggled me thats strangers were willing to pick up the collection. (Also it was covid and California was on fire, so the typical book insanity was probably exacerbated by other things.)
  • I had no expectations of it earning out, especially not within the year.
• Earning out means...royalties! I get a little amount every time someone purchases, and receive a check every ~6 months.
  • My first royalty check was for ~$1500. This was for the back half of 2021, the year of publication.
  • My second royalty check was for ~$800.
  • My third royalty check was for ~$400.
  • Since then, the royalty checks have steadily ticked down. For the first 6 mos of 2025, I received ~$150.
  • All in, the money I've made from royalties thus far is pretty close to the advance.
• We also sold foreign rights to Poland (!), which netted me another $1k.
• In summary: advance ($4k) plus royalties since earning out (another ~$4k) plus foreign rights deal ($1k) add up to $9k! Not bad!

And I genuinely mean this: I'm thrilled by how well the book has done. It's a success to me. I didn't do it for the money, but even the money has been nice! The royalties can treat me out to a nice meal, or let me buy some home goods, or (more likely) be deposited into savings (personal finance is another interest).

I do want to point out: the $9k represents 10 years of writing and publishing short stories, and the book being out for four years. That's $2250/year, or $187/month, if you want to chop it up evenly. The royalties continue to trend down, which is to be expected.

As a point of comparison: my salary when I started out in tech was $40k. That was hard to live on in the Bay Area in 2013, but I lived with family that year, and didn't pay rent.

I haven't met a short story writer, even with books out, that can really earn a steady living from it. (Coincidentally, I recently read this article from the excellent Dear Head of Mine newsletter that suggested story collections are the hardest fiction projects to sell). People have day jobs, or family support, or are in MFA programs that fund their writing, or are independently wealthy, or are cobbling things together from a variety of sources that might include consulting, part-time work, freelance, etc. But the thing that pays the bills isn't entirely the stories.

Money I made not from the book but maybe because of it

I did make some money from opportunities that I believe only materialized because of the book.

• Teaching: getting invited to teach writing was both wonderful and fascinating. I was always going me? But I don't even have an MFA! How did they even find me? I sporadically received invites in the years post publication, mostly in 2022 (which may or may not be tied to the fact that the book was up for some awards then).
  • These teaching gigs included guest lecture spots, running workshops, and classroom visits. I also had the opportunity to teach at Clarion in 2024, which was a full-time, two-week engagement. I also did some interviews for programs and institutions.
  • The checks I received for this work ranged from ~$200 to a couple 1000s.
  • All in, I've earned ~$7k from teaching opportunities.
• Speaking: I differentiate between speaking and teaching because speaking isn't explicitly me talking about my writing in an "instructor" capacity. In one interesting case I delivered a talk to an International Student graduation ceremony (so, not writing-related at all; but I have been an international student). It's my miscellaneous bucket for anything where I get in front of an audience, basically.
  • All in, I've earned another ~$3k from speaking opportunities.
• Something I want to call out is I've done a number of things for free, too—paneling at conferences, some classroom visits, most interviews. I've learned to ask about fees, especially if it's going to take me a lot of time to prepare, but I view most things as opportunities to connect with a potential audience, which benefits me in turn.
• So, that's another $10k worth of earnings likely attributable to my book, in the four (almost five) years now that it's been out.

If you're tracking: a solid $19k, overall. That's starting to look more promising. Except again, that's over four years, and extremely spiky (ie, it comes in chunks, and not in any predictable way that could contribute to, say, rent). That's also the raw amounts—I do pay taxes on it.

Also, you might notice that the $$ I made from speaking and teaching has earned me more than the book itself. And these were once again opportunistic. In some cases I had author friends in academia who then invited me to speak to their students, but for the ones that came in cold, I really don't know how my name came up as a potential teacher.

What about awards?

NHIE won the British Fantasy Award. It won a Stabby Award. It was also a finalist for the Ignyte, Crawford, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards. These were all wonderful milestones, and I'll forever be proud of them, and grateful to the readers and judges who voted. I earned $0 from these. (You do get some cool physical objects though! I got a sword for the Stabby!)

Did these make a difference in sales? It's unclear, but I think maybe not. I suspect my cover and a surprisingly successful Bookstagram tour around launch probably did more than any of these awards.

Takeaways

The main thing I wanted to illustrate is that you can make money from a short story collection, even one that came out during the pandemic, and with an indie press (though SBP does have an excellent reputation).

I repeat: I'm extremely happy with how my book has done, with the fascinating number of strangers that has purchased it (and if you haven't yet, perhaps consider getting a copy, so that I may get more $$ in my next royalty check! It's also on sale for like $9 on Amazon).

But I also continue to have a full-time, pretty demanding day job, as I have since graduating from college, because I like living in cities, and I like my lifestyle, and I like having savings. (A privilege!) I couldn't live on the variable $4k a year that those all-in earnings translate to. I know everyone's money situation is different, so this is just about my own, personally—I'm not asserting that how I measure or treat these numbers should be how you or any other writer should.

It does make me feel a pang when people assume writers are making a lot of money from their work, in this economy. I know some do, and I'm always thrilled about that (yes get that bag), but it's not an assumption one should make. I'm always going to advocate for the support of creatives, because honestly we want to keep making things, but the math—at least in short story land—rarely maths.

Thanks for reading! If you have more questions about the collection or author money, feel free to ask. (Or you can ask about other things! I've received a few already, and will answer them at a future date.)

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Til next month. Where I'll probably start talking about the grueling novel-writing process, so if that's of interest, do sign up and spread the word!