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Kids Making Money as Writers

Written by Jay Shapiro for Gaebler Ventures

You're never too young to be an entrepreneur and kids as young as eight up to the age of fifteen are making news as writers.

Many parents joke that they can't wait for their kids to earn their own money thus relieving them of what seems like infinite financial burden.

Well, things are changing thanks to the internet and companies like KidPub Press. KidPub Press publishes works from authors as young as eight, even their most senior writers aren't yet sixteen. The young writers receive royalties based on percentage of sales from their books, which are available through Amazon and Target so many parents dreams of having financially independent offspring aren't entirely out of the question.

What KidPub Press does, perhaps more importantly, is encourage literacy by providing a fun place for young writers to express their creativity online. It also gives youngsters an insight into crafting saleable products, in the form of books. Grounding that will stand many in good stead in later life when they want to branch out on their own with their personal entrepreneurial ventures.

As the largest kids writing site online KidPub itself is an admirable venture. The membership fee for the year is under $13.00 so it's well within pocket money budgets and what's offered in return for members could prove invaluable to budding writers who really do want a taste of what being professional in the industry entails.

Kids have long been a part of show business, so why not the literary world.

Many adult authors claim they write the sort of books they themselves would like to read. There can be no better way for children to fully explore writing and its rewards that by authoring the kinds of stories they enjoy.

While the basics are taught in most schools, the opportunity to really be creative with language is often an overlooked area. The new community of online young writers will certainly offer what conventional schooling might not.

Is there money in it?

Here's how the figures break down.

A publishing package doesn't come free but it does come at a reasonable cost. In 2009 KidPub was selling its packages for $59.00. As books were selling at the time for around $12.00 on Amazon, Target and through KidPub Press's own online bookstore an author would only need to sell 18 books to cover the fee, seeing as their share of the sale price is/was around 25% or roughly $3.25.

18 books when there is a worldwide market is not an impossible sales target, and in all honesty, because the amount is so low it would very likely be that the first 18 were sold to family and friends. Is this a false economy? Well if an author's parents are buying books in order to set them on a career path in the hope of them being able to support them, they might need to buy more than eighteen copies!

Whatever the numbers, there can surely be no downside to encouraging literacy in young people, even those who don't pursue writing as a career can only benefit from having a creative command of language. Being so equipped is advantageous in any industry.

Jay Shapiro is a freelance writer based in the UK. Jay has a particular interest in the emotive aspects of the entrepreneur's character. "Alongside the nuts and bolts of business, the character of the person is often the ingredient responsible for success."

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