At first glance, 2013 looked like a profitable year for novelists. According to FORBES’ list, self-published writer E. L. James earned a staggering $95 million last year, while other popular names such as James Patterson and Suzanne Collins pulled in $91 million and $55 million respectively. Genre fiction topped the charts again, cutting multi-million-dollar paychecks for speed writers including Danielle Steel, Janet Evanovich, Nora Roberts, John Grisham and Stephen King.
And then there’s the rest of us.