How Much Is Enough?
In Chapter 3, you considered what kind of magazine writer you want to become. You put yourself into one of four general categories:
The occasional writer, selling three or four articles a year
The part-time writer, selling an article or two every month
The average full-time writer, selling three or four articles every month
The serious full-time writer, selling as many stories as possible, perhaps branching out into books and other formats in the future
No matter which of these categories describes you best, you may eventually come to a point where you feel that you would like to increase your overall income. That could mean earning $500 or $5,000 more each month, and it could be done either by expanding your base to take on more work or by increasing the amount of money you earn from the clients that you already have.
What you need to think about at this point is not just the kind of magazine writer you want to be, but whether your goals also include making as much money as possible. You have to ask yourself the question: How much is enough?
It's Okay to Make a Little
A lot of people instinctively answer this question by saying, “As much as I can get!”
Of course you want to earn as much money as you can in your working life, and it would be wonderful if every magazine writer earned $50,000 for every 300-word article she produced. This obviously is a far cry from reality, though, and you have to understand your personal goals before you can decide how much income will really be enough to satisfy you.
The average freelance magazine writer in America earns between $30,000 and $60,000 a year, according to various surveys. Being average, then, may be perfectly fine for your goals. There's nothing wrong with admitting that you're happy with what you already have and focusing on the craft of writing instead of on increasing your annual income.
For many magazine writers, being published — not making big bucks — is the overall goal. There's nothing wrong with you if you fit that description. It's perfectly acceptable, even fulfilling in many cases, to sell an article here and there while collecting a bit of money for your efforts. You certainly don't have to spend every waking hour trying to figure out how to fatten your bottom line if you'll be just as happy fattening your file of magazine-article clips instead.
It's Serious Business to Make a Lot
You also need to keep in mind that if you do want to earn as much money as possible, you're going to have to go back into the mode of businessperson instead of creative writer. For many wordsmiths, this is a formidable challenge, one that sometimes just isn't worth all the effort and aggravation. A lot of magazine writers prefer to simply write great stories and take whatever money they can get. On the other hand, if you're the type of writer who is willing to knuckle down and scrape every last corner of the magazine-writing universe in search of dollars and pennies alike, then you certainly can find plenty of extra income out there.
How much money do top-earning freelance magazine writers make?
There are U.S.-based writers out there who earn well more than $100,000 a year. Some work exclusively for magazines, while others work for magazines and then repurpose their stories into books, advertorials, and other formats to boost their bottom-line income.
You'll have to think strategically about the kinds of assignments you're landing and the kinds of editors with whom you're building relationships, and you'll also have to do some soul-searching about how you can cut costs in your personal business — even if it means a little bit more work for you at first.
