Writer statistics show two different realities. The U.S. occupation of writers and authors is projected to grow, while author surveys show that book income can remain modest and uneven. The available figures also describe how writers publish, where their income comes from, and what authors expect as artificial intelligence changes the creative economy.
Table of contents
- Employment and pay
- Where writers work
- Author income in 2022
- Self-publishing and genre differences
- Earlier income trends
- Representation and access
- Writers and generative AI
Employment and pay
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook counted about 135,400 jobs for writers and authors in 2024. In the same source, the median annual wage was $72,270 in May 2024, equivalent to a median hourly wage of $34.75. These are occupation-wide measures, so they describe employed writers and authors across the field rather than the royalties of book authors alone.
The median wage for all workers was $49,500 in May 2024, according to the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook entry for writers and authors. The occupation’s median annual wage was therefore reported above that all-worker benchmark. Wage statistics and author-income statistics measure different things: a wage generally reflects pay from employment, while author income can include books and other author-related work.
The BLS projects employment of writers and authors to grow 4% from 2024 to 2034. That is slightly above the projected 3% growth for all occupations and above the projected 2% growth for media and communication workers. The BLS projects employment to reach 140,300 writers and authors in 2034, a projected change of 4,900 jobs from 2024.
The outlook includes an important measure of opportunity beyond net job growth. About 13,400 openings for writers and authors are projected each year on average over the 2024–2034 decade. Annual openings can reflect new jobs as well as opportunities created when workers leave an occupation, so this figure should not be read as a forecast of 13,400 net new positions every year.
| BLS measure | Figure | Period or comparison |
|---|---|---|
| Writers and authors employed | 135,400 | 2024 |
| Median annual wage | $72,270 | May 2024 |
| Median hourly wage | $34.75 | May 2024 |
| Projected employment | 140,300 | 2034 |
| Projected employment growth | 4% | 2024–2034 |
| Average projected annual openings | 13,400 | 2024–2034 |
Where writers work
The BLS reports that 63% of writers and authors were self-employed workers. That share helps explain why employment statistics do not tell the whole story of a writing life. A self-employed writer may combine contracts, freelance assignments, books, editing, teaching, or other work, and those activities may not appear as one conventional salary.
Among the industry categories listed by the BLS, 11% of writers and authors worked in professional, scientific, and technical services. Another 9% worked in information. Educational services—state, local, and private—accounted for 3%, while religious, grantmaking, civic, professional, and similar organizations accounted for 2%.
These percentages are selected industry shares reported in the BLS occupation profile; they are not a complete description of every writer’s work setting. Still, they show that writing is distributed across several kinds of organizations rather than concentrated in a single publishing workplace. The large self-employed share also points to a career structure in which independence is common and income may come from multiple sources.
Author income in 2022
The Authors Guild’s 2023 Author Income Survey received responses from 5,699 published authors. For 2022, full-time authors had a median book income of $10,000 and a median total income of $20,000 from books and other author-related income combined. The distinction is substantial: the total includes work connected to authorship beyond book payments.
Across all surveyed authors, the median book income was $2,000 in 2022, and the median total author-related income was $5,000. Those figures include authors who were not full-time, so they should not be compared directly with the full-time medians as though they describe the same group.
The survey also reports results for authors in commercial markets. Full-time authors in those markets had a median book income of $15,000 and a median author-related income of $25,000 in 2022. The commercial-market figures are higher than the full-time figures for all markets in the supplied survey results, but they remain medians: individual outcomes can be above or below them.
Audiobooks were not yet universal among published authors in the survey. Fifty-five percent of traditionally published authors had no books published in audiobook form, compared with 64% of self-published authors. The figures describe the survey groups and the 2022 income context; they do not establish why a book lacked an audiobook edition.
Self-publishing and genre differences
Full-time self-published authors had a median book income of $12,800 in 2022 and a median total income of $15,000. Among full-time self-published authors who had been publishing since at least 2018, the median income was $24,000 in 2022. The comparable median for that self-published cohort was $13,700 in 2018, and the Authors Guild reported that the cohort’s income increased by 76% from 2018 to 2022.
That cohort comparison is narrower than a comparison of all self-published authors. It follows authors who met the publishing-history condition, and the reported 2018 and 2022 values are medians. It therefore provides a measured view of one continuing group rather than a forecast for every new self-published writer.
Genre also matters in the survey results. Romance and romantic suspense authors had a median book income of $31,725 and a combined median income of $37,000. The supplied figures do not provide equivalent genre medians for every category, so these results should be understood as a specific genre finding rather than a general estimate for all writers.
The earlier Authors Guild survey offers another publishing-path comparison. In 2017, self-published authors had a median book-related income of $1,951. Self-published authors in the top decile for book-related earnings had an annual median of $154,000. The gap between those two figures illustrates how a median and a top-decile result answer different questions: one describes the middle of the group, while the other describes a high-earning segment.
Earlier income trends
The Authors Guild’s 2018 Author Income Survey received detailed responses from 5,067 authors. Its historical figures are useful for understanding change over time, but they are legacy survey results and are presented here with their original years rather than as current estimates.
Median author income fell to $6,080 in 2017, down 42% from 2009, when the median was $10,500. The survey reported a median of $8,000 in 2014 and $12,850 in 2007. Median book income was $3,100 in 2017, compared with $3,900 in 2013 and $6,250 in 2009.
For authors published before 2014, median income from all writing-related sources was $8,170 in 2013. Full-time book authors earned a median income of $20,300 in 2017. The survey also reported that literary fiction authors saw a 27% decline in book earnings since 2013, while self-published authors’ book income nearly doubled over the same period.
The same survey found that self-published authors’ overall median income remained 58% lower than traditionally published authors’ income. Twenty-five percent of all published authors surveyed earned $0 in book-related income in 2017, as did 18% of full-time authors. Including zero earners, mean total author earnings fell to $1,784, and mean book earnings fell to $490.
Other measures describe how authors combine income streams. Twenty-one percent of full-time published authors derived 100% of their individual income from book-related income. Fifty-seven percent derived 100% of their individual income from book-related and other writing-related activities combined. The survey also reported that Amazon controlled approximately 85% of the self-published market at the time of that research.
Representation and access
The Authors Guild’s 2023 Author Income Survey included identity and access measures for its 5,699 participants. Twenty-one percent did not identify as White. Eight percent identified as Black, 4% as Hispanic, 2% as Asian American and Pacific Islander, and 2% as Native American.
Twelve percent of participants identified as LGBTQIA+. Eleven percent fit the Americans with Disabilities Act definition of impairment, and 6% did not identify solely as male or female. These are descriptions of the survey participants, not estimates of every published author or every writer in the labor force.
For readers building a creative life, the distinction between representation data and income data matters. A survey can show who participated and what income patterns appeared in the sample, but the figures do not by themselves explain the barriers, opportunities, or working conditions behind those outcomes.
Writers and generative AI
More than 2,400 authors responded to the Authors Guild’s December 2023 AI survey. The results show strong support for consent and compensation. Ninety-six percent said writers’ consent should be required and writers should be paid if their works are used to build or further develop AI systems. Three percent said using books without consent or compensation was okay, and 1% said they did not know whether it was okay.
Authors expressed different views about licensing under specific safeguards. Thirty-eight percent would license their work for AI training if they could control output use and receive additional compensation for identifiable use. Thirty-three percent would not, while 29% did not know. When an AI company could not prohibit certain prompts or significant output use, 78% said they would not be willing to license their work.
Compensation structure was also part of the survey. Thirty-five percent said a recurring annual fee would be the right structure, while 8% said a one-time fee would be sufficient. If a publisher had the right to license a work for AI training, 47% considered a 50/50 royalty split with publishers reasonable. Another 22% preferred a different royalty split, with most of those favoring 90% or 80% to the author.
The survey captured uncertainty as well as opinion. Six percent of respondents were aware of having lost work to AI, while 50% did not know whether they had lost work to AI. Overall, 87% said they do not use generative AI as part of their writing process. Among authors who do use it, 33% use it for brainstorming plots, ideas, or characters; 26% use it for marketing help; and 13% use it for structuring or organizing drafts.
Together, the employment and survey figures describe a field with projected growth but uneven individual economics. The BLS measures the occupation’s labor-market outlook, while the Authors Guild surveys capture author income, publishing paths, identity measures, and responses to a changing technology landscape. Keeping those scopes and dates separate is essential when interpreting writer statistics.