I always thought 43 things was a dumb website: you list things that you want to do, then find other people that want to do them? Why, so you can fail collectively? But then I found something encouraging:


People who want to write a novel: 17645


People who want to read a novel: 18746


I read somewhere (and like my dad, I can never quite cite sources; my mom always says "in the Wall Street Journal," "on X blog," etc., but my dad just says "somewhere" and it has messed me up--it nearly derailed a Cranium win one time) that 75% of Americans want to WRITE a novel, but about 49% actually read. That's bad economics for writers. This is slightly better.

Of course, you're still in a place where for every book written, there is one person out there to read it, so everybody should be getting a book deal of... I think $0, right?

Well, I decided to do the math.

Here goes:

1. The people who want to read novels will probably never do it at all. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt that 50% will manage.
   
   (This 50% is not entirely guesswork, btw: 57% of Americans read a book in 2002 according to an NEA report ["Dumb USA: Only 57 percent of Americans read a book in 2002" -- prisonplanet.com], and I'm tempering that with the 49% I heard from my dad.)
   


2. The people who want to write novels are a lot more screwed. Let's say 1% of them finish.


3. 1% of novel writers actually write their novel * 17,645 = 176 people write novels


4. 50% of novel readers actually read a novel * 18,746 = 9373 people read novels


5. There are 176 novels for 9373 people to read.


6. Let us assume that a book costs $15 (probably more).


7. $15 * 9373 people who want to read = $140,595 that the people are willing to spend on books


8. $140,595 / 176 books = $798.84 out there for each book


9. Therefore, each 43 things author should receive $799 for writing her/his book.
   [I always think that it should be her/his, to be alphabetical.]


10. If the book takes nine months to write, part-time (20 hours/week), that would mean each author was getting paid $1.11 per day to write the book.


11. Please note: about $2.3 billion people live on this much per a day.
    
    (That's based on this article about >$1 and >$2 populations, and the Feb. 2008 world population.)

George Orwell said, "There is only one way to make money at writing, and that is to marry a publisher's daughter."

But I still feel hopefull about the whole thing. Why? General illness, and the perspective of those $2.3 billion.


Is any of that math wrong?


---------------------------


Coming in March:

I'm reading my six-word memoir from the new book Not Quite What I Was Planning--



--on Tuesday, March 25th at 7pm, at the famous KGB Bar in Manhattan. [more]

I don't think it has to be a big secret, now that the book is out; my six-word memoir is:

Oh shit! No way? Yeah, dude.