Money · 1 of 5

What writers make

Typical

$76,910

Entry writing job

$44,310

Senior or successful

$139,870

The national median is $76,910 a year, and the bottom tenth start near $44,310. Read that carefully: the federal survey covers writers and authors as one group, so it mostly counts salaried people writing marketing copy, scripts and web content. Book authors are usually self-employed and are largely not in this number.