How much do authors make?

answers1: If a book is published by a major publisher, the author
receives an advance against royalties. This means they may receive
$1,000 or $500,000-- there's no way to say "authors make X amount"
because it depends on the publishing house, the book, how well the
publisher thinks the book will sell, how well the author (or the
author's agent) negotiated the contract. <br>
<br>
The author earns royalties, which is a percentage of each book sold,
but they don't see any more money until enough books have sold for the
publisher to make back the advance. After that, if the book is still
selling, the author gets royalty checks. <br>
<br>
There's really no way to know real amounts unless you know the terms
of the contract and how many books have been sold.
answers2: Well, I'm not sure about actual figures, but think about
this - the term 'author' doesn't actually just apply to those who make
enough money from their books to write novels as their sole
profession. It applies to anyone who has written a book or is in the
process of writing a book, published or not. So in that case, most
authors don't make much, or anything at all. Even if we just consider
regularly published authors, many rely on other jobs - often
journalism (freelance or otherwise) - to make a living. <br>
<br>
It depends on your deal with the publishing house, some authors
probably get paid a sum of money when the book is accepted to be
published, but rely on the book selling well for anything further. I
don't know that they get paid all that much per copy of book sold - a
few dollars, maybe, at best, after you take out publishing fee and
expenses, transportation costs and shop profit.