Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Finnucane 993 days ago
>Don't you have to be fairly well off to invest the time to write a book?

I can say, after 30 years in the publishing business, that the answer to that is no. Many writers are not that well off. In fact, many struggle financially. Many have 'day jobs' to pay the bills.
1 comments
vidarh 992 days ago
It's true that many struggle, and as a result most writers are not full time. But first published novels skew quite old, and as I posted elsewhere the average household income in the UK at least for full time writers is well above average, so while I don't think it's high enough to say you have to be "fairly well off", it certainly helps buy you time. Doesn't necessarily buy you success, though.
link
Finnucane 992 days ago
>But first published novels skew quite old

Most of the writers I know started young, and not all writers are novelists. Most are not.

>and as I posted elsewhere the average household income in the UK at least for full time writers is well above average

That just means they married someone with a real job.

link
vidarh 991 days ago
Most you know might well have started young - many do -, but in terms of getting books published, as per the subject here, the overall numbers are quite clear.

> That just means they married someone with a real job.

Yes, that was exactly the point - to a large extent writing is subsidized by other jobs, and so there is a significant element of privilege involved.

link