People have all sorts of ideas about writers. Some see writers as extravagant personalities (witness Truman Capote or Tom Wolfe), others see them as reclusive (witness J.D. Salinger). But most think of writers as wealthy.
Many times people want to know--how much do you make from writing a book? Short answer: If I worked the same number of hours flipping burgers at McDonalds as I have put into my writing, I would have a lot more money. Not even close. Moonlighting at a fast food restaurant would be much more lucrative. But then, I'd smell like meat all the time.
I do have one lucrative writing story, however. Some years back I had an agent who managed to land a nice contract for me during the dot.com era (when web sites and online businesses were springing up like grass). The job? I wrote two traditional Passover stories for a web site that no longer exists: Fatbrain.com.
Passover, you ask? Yes, Passover. Me, a Christian, writing two Passover stories. The pay? I got a whopping $2000 for the gig--and I think I wrote the tales in an afternoon. All in all, not a bad "per word" rate. That's my one writing experience where I outpaced burger flipping.
The web site was bought out and went under a few weeks after they purchased my tales. To my knowledge, they've never been in print. Cha-Ching! Bat-a-bing!
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