How I make money writing

Hello loves!

Three weeks to go until Femme Feral launches in the UK, EEEE!

South Africans, I have good news and I have bad news. Good news, I now have several pre-order links for you. I've also confirmed that you will be able to get the gorgeous sprayed-edges special edition hardback version. Bad news ... it's going to take until late May for those books to be on your shelves, not April as I'd hoped. I'm so sorry! I hope it will be worth the wait <3

How I make money writing

I was recently interviewed by Hao Nguyen for his brilliant newsletter, How I Make Money Writing - a topic that is aligned with several of my interests, I'm sure you'll agree.

Hao has generously offered all of you a complimentary 30-day guest pass so you can read the whole interview (and all of the 100+ interviews on the site). I hope if the topic interests you and you'd like to support the good work Hao's doing lifting the taboo on talking about money in the arts, some of you will consider subscribing to his Substack. It's really good.

Sam, your career spans screenwriting, non-fiction, novels, and academia. How does the financial pie chart look today, and does one of those pillars, like the TV work or the teaching, subsidize the others?

I think of it less like a pie chart and more like an investment portfolio, except I’m both the anxious client and the somewhat delulu fund manager.

Some of my projects are high-risk and high-reward, like venture capital investments in a speculative start-up. That’s when I’m developing my original ideas, whether as novels or TV shows or whatever. I’m building IP (intellectual property) rather than selling my time.

Then there’s the part of my career that’s like an index fund or the bond market. Low risk, reliable, but also far less lucrative. Teaching’s in this category, as are all my freelance writing gigs where I’m writing for IP someone else owns (for me, that’s mostly TV writing).

It’s not really that one category subsidises the other, it’s that the reliable income lets me stay in the game long enough to keep making the big bets.

Last year one of my big bets actually hit, so the split that year was something like 90% high-risk, 10% reliable. But this year it’s going to be 100% reliable income, and I’m going to make far less overall. That’s fine; I plan my career expecting that I might only have a few big bets pay off across my lifetime.

You literally wrote the book on personal finance with Manage Your Money Like a Fucking Grownup. How do you apply your own advice about stability and savings to the notoriously unstable, feast or famine reality of a full-time writing career?

Look, the irony of writing a book about money and then entering a career where it’s notoriously difficult to earn any money is not lost on me!

I entered this career very realistic about the fact that the majority of full-time writers don’t earn a living wage. So I kept my day job in fintech for a long time and saved aggressively (at my last job, I was saving about 50% of every paycheck). That required real sacrifices. But I had a specific target: I wanted enough savings that I could earn nothing for a full two years without touching my retirement savings, while I launched a writing career. That was my runway. After two years, I found that I was consistently covering my bills with writing. So I kept going. That was five years ago, now. Success, for me, means that I can keep doing this until I die.

One of the central ideas in Manage Your Money Like a F-cking Grownup is that saving buys you freedom. Writing was my deepest dream so I prioritised it. I turned my vague hopes into a concrete strategy. A lot of other stuff went right for me along the way, and I was exceptionally lucky. I can’t promise this is a replicable plan. All I can tell you is that money means you can spend your time how you want to. And being rich in the currency of time is pretty damn important, because (sorry to tell you this) you’re going to die one day.

I still treat writing like a business. I do a monthly financial review. I know my numbers. That clarity tells me when I need to hunt more quick-money freelance work for a while and when I’ve got enough of a buffer that I can afford to take a big creative swing. I also have boring things like income protection insurance and a robust investment portfolio that isn’t connected to the whims of the publishing industry, which makes the whole thing much less stressful.

If you want to be a writer, I really believe that taking the time to learn some financial skills is one of the best investments you can make. The good news is that - I promise - money is honestly much simpler to understand than, say, plotting.

If you want to read the rest of the interview, where I get deep into the weeds of exactly what metrics I track, why a six-figure book deal isn't the "quit your day-job" money you think it is, and how writing on recognised IP like Marvel's different to developing your own ideas, here's the guest pass, and here's the full interview.

My friends are so clever, you guys!

Is there any joy in life greater than watching the people you love succeed? I've gotten to spend a lot of time this month celebrating some dear friends who have released BRILLIANT things you can watch, play with and listen to right now! I could honestly not be more proud.

Cadence: a puzzle game about the quiet joy of connecting logic with music. My dear friend Peter Cardwell-Garder has poured 13 years of love into this game, and it's extraordinary (fellow nerds, there's also a Turing-complete sandbox mode?!?). You can play it for free on iOS or buy it on Steam. If you love puzzles, music, coding, and/or cats, you'll love this.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE you can PET THE CAT while you solve the soothing music puzzles. Who could ask for more?

Relooted: a heist game where you get to steal real African artifacts back from Western museums (the dream), created by Nyamakop, an indie studio in Joburg where several of my favourite people work. The gameplay's a blast and the rich story is a stellar example of why more video game studios should hire novelists (brilliant South African author Mohale Mashigo directed the narrative). Every element of the game is so damn GOOD (and CATHARTIC).

Unfolding: My friend Emma Viacelli wrote a frigging MUSICAL you guys and one of the songs won the Stiles + Drewe Best New Song Prize in 2024. They're currently crowdfunding to put on an industry showcase in London, which is the next step on its INEVITABLE PATH to the West End. They are very very close to hitting their crowdfunding target if you could help, and you can listen to a demo of the brilliant award-winning song here.

Jungle Beat: Sam Wilson and my buddies at Sunrise Animations won the Best Animation SAFTA(!!) for their family-friendly dino romp Jungle Beat 2 The Past, which you can (and should!) find on your local streaming platform of choice immediately. Fun fact: Sam wrote the first draft of that script in a single weekend, the beautiful madman.

GUYS - the PRIDE, I can't tell you!! I might have to go LIE DOWN.

Wishing your friends lots of successes that you can be very proud of,

Sam