Dear O'Abby: How can I give up my day job?

 Dear O'Abby,

I've been writing for over ten years now, and the sum total of my writing income has been...  well... let's just say it's not much.  When I started this, I was certain that by this point in my career I'd be a full time writer.  But I'm still working over 40 hours a week at my day job on top of all the time I spend writing and marketing my books.

What do I need to do to get to the point I can sustain myself and my family as a writer?

Yours,

Baffled

Dear Baffled, 

I think you'd be surprised to know how few writers are able to live comfortably off their writing income.  Just look at the bios of authors in the back of the majority of books you read and you'll find that most of them do something else as well as write.  

And there really isn't a lot you can do about it.  The best thing you can do is to keep writing, keep publishing and keep your fingers crossed that something you write resonates with enough people that it sells a lot of copies. And that people who read that book might be interested enough and passionate enough to go back and seek out that back catalogue you've been building up all these years.

Having a body of work certainly helps.  Even if you don't make a fortune off any one book, having a catalogue of titles means you're not relying on one thing to earn your living.  But even that isn't a guarantee of success.  There are a lot of writers out there and a lot of books for readers to discover.  The best thing you can do is to learn everything you can and become the best writer you can be.  

I wish there was a magic formula or recipe we could follow to become successful, but if there is, I haven't found it yet.  Let me know if you do.

X O'Abby