Does anyone have any accurate information for how much money a new screenwriter, if they manage to sell their first not-low-budget script, can expect to make? Simply googling it results in wildly varying estimates, and the only threads I could find here are many years old and likely outdated.
I worked as a civil engineer until May 2021, then quit (thanks to some income from Bitcoin and simply saving money) in order to focus on screenwriting full-time. Actually, from the first day of 2021 to the last, I was working on multiple drafts of my latest script full time (meaning 40 hours a week or more), which was quite insane while I was also at my day job full time. I also spent several months before this reading 4 books and several academic papers for research, mapping out an outline, etc. I'm now ready to start querying and entering it in contests and so on.
I know just selling anything would be quite an achievement to be proud of, but ultimately, like anyone else, I'd like to earn enough money from writing to not have to go back to my day job when my savings run out around the end of this year. I saw some estimates on websites suggesting first-time writers might expect to earn $100k for their script, and even that is broken down to $20k for the first draft and $20k for each of four possible future drafts, if they're even wanted. So, assuming taxes only take 20% (probably overly optimistic) and your agent/manager gets 10%, you'd be left with $14,400 for your first draft, which seems... well, unfathomable. And of course, that doesn't include any retirement plan, health insurance, or paid vacation/sick days. At my last day job, I was making about $6k per month after taxes, and with retirement/insurance/vacation, it'd be around $8k per month. So the idea that I would earn the same amount of money for a script I spent well over a year on as I would make in less than 2 months at my day job is dismaying, to say the least. If I'm ever going to be able to afford to live in Los Angeles, I need to make at least double what I made at my day job... not less than 1/6 as much.
Anyway, I'm really praying the information I've found so far is inaccurate, particularly the part about only receiving 1/5 of the overall agreed-to amount for your first draft. Does anyone have any reliable, accurate information? Is there perhaps a database that lists all spec script sales and how much they sold for? Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
I worked as a civil engineer until May 2021, then quit (thanks to some income from Bitcoin and simply saving money) in order to focus on screenwriting full-time. Actually, from the first day of 2021 to the last, I was working on multiple drafts of my latest script full time (meaning 40 hours a week or more), which was quite insane while I was also at my day job full time. I also spent several months before this reading 4 books and several academic papers for research, mapping out an outline, etc. I'm now ready to start querying and entering it in contests and so on.
I know just selling anything would be quite an achievement to be proud of, but ultimately, like anyone else, I'd like to earn enough money from writing to not have to go back to my day job when my savings run out around the end of this year. I saw some estimates on websites suggesting first-time writers might expect to earn $100k for their script, and even that is broken down to $20k for the first draft and $20k for each of four possible future drafts, if they're even wanted. So, assuming taxes only take 20% (probably overly optimistic) and your agent/manager gets 10%, you'd be left with $14,400 for your first draft, which seems... well, unfathomable. And of course, that doesn't include any retirement plan, health insurance, or paid vacation/sick days. At my last day job, I was making about $6k per month after taxes, and with retirement/insurance/vacation, it'd be around $8k per month. So the idea that I would earn the same amount of money for a script I spent well over a year on as I would make in less than 2 months at my day job is dismaying, to say the least. If I'm ever going to be able to afford to live in Los Angeles, I need to make at least double what I made at my day job... not less than 1/6 as much.
Anyway, I'm really praying the information I've found so far is inaccurate, particularly the part about only receiving 1/5 of the overall agreed-to amount for your first draft. Does anyone have any reliable, accurate information? Is there perhaps a database that lists all spec script sales and how much they sold for? Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
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