AFTERWORD:
WHO WILL GET RICH WRITING
FICTION IN THE NINETIES?NO NOVELIST I KNOW WRITES FICTION SIMPLY TO GET RICH.
However, all novelists I know dream about it. Will their dreams
come true? That is impossible to predict. Nevertheless, in my years
as an agent I have found that certain factors foretell big success
more than others.
First, let's define "rich." I am not talking about obtaining
advances in six, seven or eight figures. That is nice, to be sure, but
it can be a one-time event. Rather, I am talking about an annual writ-
ing income that is in six figures or more.
Why not seven? Sadly, few novelists ever reach that lofty plateau,
although some do. The 1995 Forbes top-forty list of the highest-paid
entertainers includes four novelists: Stephen King, Michael
Crichton, lohn Grisham, Tom Clancy. (King's estimated annual earn-
ings are $22 million; Clancy's a measly $15 million, poor guy). An
income of seven figures happens to a lot of best-sellers one time,
but relatively few stay at that level for years.
A sizable group of novelists, though, make it to and stay at a six-
figure annual income. I'd like to stress that word annual. Lots of
authors celebrate when they get their first big advance. They figure
they have made it. They have, in one way, but it is much more
impressive when an author gets to six figures and stays there year
after year. That is "making it" in my book.
Who achieves this ideal? In examining the careers of my well-
paid clients, I find that they have the following traits in common: