Interview #111: How Sam Beckbessinger Makes Money Writing
In this interview, Sam explains her investment portfolio approach to writing by balancing high risk novels against the reliable index fund of teaching and TV work.
Sam Beckbessinger is a novelist, screenwriter, and creative writing lecturer who wrote the bestselling personal finance guide Manage Your Money Like a Fucking Grownup. Today she balances a wildly diverse portfolio that includes writing for massive franchises like Marvel, teaching at Bath Spa University, and developing original fiction like her upcoming perimenopausal werewolf novel Femme Feral.
In this interview Sam applies her financial background directly to the chaotic world of professional writing. She reveals the exact mathematical formula she uses to calculate her creative runway, explains why she treats television development money strictly as a lottery ticket, and breaks down the harsh reality of how a six figure book deal actually shrinks after taxes and agent fees. If you want a blueprint on how to use financial spreadsheets to buy yourself total creative freedom this one’s for you.
What you do: Novelist, screenwriter, creative writing lecturer.
Years writing professionally: 10.
Earnings range: Between £45k–£80k a year.
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Sam, your career spans screenwriting, non-fiction, novels, and academia. How does the financial pie chart look today, and does one of those pillars, like the TV work or the teaching, subsidize the others?
I think of it less like a pie chart and more like an investment portfolio, except I’m both the anxious client and the somewhat delulu fund manager.
Some of my projects are high-risk and high-reward, like venture capital investments in a speculative start-up. That’s when I’m developing my original ideas, whether as novels or TV shows or whatever. I’m building IP (intellectual property) rather than selling my time.
Then there’s the part of my career that’s like an index fund or the bond market. Low risk, reliable, but also far less lucrative. Teaching’s in this category, as are all my freelance writing gigs where I’m writing for IP someone else owns (for me, that’s mostly TV writing).
It’s not really that one category subsidises the other, it’s that the reliable income lets me stay in the game long enough to keep making the big bets.
Last year one of my big bets actually hit, so the split that year was something like 90% high-risk, 10% reliable. But this year it’s going to be 100% reliable income, and I’m going to make far less overall. That’s fine; I plan my career expecting that I might only have a few big bets pay off across my lifetime.
You literally wrote the book on personal finance with Manage Your Money Like a Fucking Grownup. How do you apply your own advice about stability and savings to the notoriously unstable, feast or famine reality of a full-time writing career?
Look, the irony of writing a book about money and then entering a career where it’s notoriously difficult to earn any money is not lost on me!
I entered this career very realistic about the fact that the majority of full-time writers don’t earn a living wage. So I kept my day job in fintech for a long time and saved aggressively (at my last job, I was saving about 50% of every paycheck). That required real sacrifices. But I had a specific target: I wanted enough savings that I could earn nothing for a full two years without touching my retirement savings, while I launched a writing career. That was my runway. After two years, I found that I was consistently covering my bills with writing. So I kept going. That was five years ago, now. Success, for me, means that I can keep doing this until I die.
One of the central ideas in Manage Your Money Like a F-cking Grownup is that saving buys you freedom. Writing was my deepest dream so I prioritised it. I turned my vague hopes into a concrete strategy. A lot of other stuff went right for me along the way, and I was exceptionally lucky. I can’t promise this is a replicable plan. All I can tell you is that money means you can spend your time how you want to. And being rich in the currency of time is pretty damn important, because (sorry to tell you this) you’re going to die one day.
I still treat writing like a business. I do a monthly financial review. I know my numbers. That clarity tells me when I need to hunt more quick-money freelance work for a while and when I’ve got enough of a buffer that I can afford to take a big creative swing. I also have boring things like income protection insurance and a robust investment portfolio that isn’t connected to the whims of the publishing industry, which makes the whole thing much less stressful.
If you want to be a writer, I really believe that taking the time to learn some financial skills is one of the best investments you can make. The good news is that - I promise - money is honestly much simpler to understand than, say, plotting.
I’d love to dig into the actual mechanics of your runway. As you were nearing the end of those two years, what exact metrics or recurring revenue numbers were you looking at to prove to yourself that the writing was actually sustainable? Was it just a matter of being able to consistently pay your bills each month, or did you have a specific profit margin you needed to hit before you felt safe?
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