(Novelist Norman Mailer during his salad days. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Have you heard about the Justine Larbalestier Survey?

Justine Larbalestier, a novelist from Down Under, conducted his own informal survey and asked his 18 "fellow Aussies, folks from the UK, Canada and the US" how much they got for their first novel. Seven of those who responded are full-time writers.

Here are the results:

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Popularity: 14% [?]

(Best-selling author Dan Brown. Courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Let's continue our empirical investigation into novelists' income with the League of Utah Writers (LUW) 2004 Survey.

The results of a survey that the League of Utah Writers conducted in 2004 with 234 writers re-confirm the plight of non-technical writers.

The survey found that the average income received from writing over 12 months for all writer members was a pitiful $2,705.

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Popularity: 12% [?]

(JK Rowling. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Novelists are among the worst paid writers.

Yes, the Steven Kings, Dan Browns, and JK Rowlings of this world get paid extremely well.

Actually, Rowling is said to be on her way up to become the first writer in human history poised to earn $1 billion over her career.

But the average novelist is practically hungry and driving that same old rust-bucket god knows since when.

It takes years to write a decent novel.

Then it takes equally long to find an agent.

And when years later, the book finally gets published, the advance is usually around $5,000.

That's all most novelists will ever see since royalties are not guaranteed. And even when they earn any royalties, the checks take months or sometimes even a whole year to arrive.

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Popularity: 11% [?]