Interview #43: How Ashley Hutson Makes Money Writing
In this interview, Ashley explains why she won’t teach, freelance, or edit, and how working a regular job helps protect her writing energy.
Ashley Hutson works full-time as a secretary at a state prison and writes fiction on the side. Her debut novel One’s Company was published by W.W. Norton and later optioned for television. Her stories have appeared in Granta, Electric Literature, and more. Writing, for Ashley, has always been something she does because she needs to—not because she’s chasing a career.
In this interview, Ashley talks about earning $30K from a film option, why she doesn’t hustle for bylines, and how low expectations have kept her creatively free. If you're balancing a day job and a writing life—and wondering whether it’s worth chasing the literary hustle—this one’s for you.
What you do: Office secretary at a state prison.
Years writing professionally: 7ish, maybe?
Earnings range: Between $1k–$2k currently per year.
“Nominations are more of an ego-booster than anything really meaningful.”
Ashley, with your novel One’s Company out with W.W. Norton and fiction published in outlets like Granta and Electric Literature, what does your writing income look like these days from royalties or any other sources, and how has that shifted over time?
Currently I make a little less than $2k from royalties on One's Company. This is divided into two payments, one in the spring and one in the fall, and the amount of each payment varies according to how many copies sold during that time. I haven't been publishing lately, so that's the only money I have coming in writing-wise. I was paid maybe $50 for the essay in Electric Literature in 2017. Granta paid me $300 for my story "Challenger Deep" in 2018, which was my first, and last, top-tier payment from a literary magazine.
Working full-time outside of writing, how do you carve out space, mentally or physically, to maintain a creative practice alongside the demands of a day job?
I write when I am moved to. I don't force myself. I read a lot. I don’t have children or a partner, so I have ultimate freedom when I’m not at work. Because of this, it’s less about finding time or space and more about using time wisely, which I rarely do.
