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I know many writers, and not a single one of them makes enough money to live from their writing. The article is a long read and I'm doing it in segments, but it's hard to read - agonizing to see the struggles. All writers I know do it for love of writing, because they have the urge to write. There are so many gates: I have written a novel, but I'm at the agent gate right now, trying simply to get someone to represent it. Self-publishing is common, but requires a lot of self-marketing which is not something I feel capable of doing myself, in the tiktok/booktok sense. (Blogs, talks, book events, sure; marketing with a publisher, absolutely; trying to get a self-published novel noticed on booktok, not by myself.) It's not like coding where you can publish a library on github or get involved in a community and your work becomes visible. I've done that. This is another game. After all this -- the writing, the gates, the publishing -- you won't make enough to live. The article really seems to be that the story of writing is a lie, that our culture has a picture of authors living from their writing and it's false. The hidden work and jobs that subsidize being able to write make writing something of a side gig when it should be the main work, and I cannot help but think of all the cultural value we have lost by not letting writers focus more on writing. Some countries have small stipends, small support. We need more. |
For better or worse, luck probably matters more than quality in determining whether a particular writer breaks through and earns enough money to live. They can do everything right and still fail. Aspiring writers need to accept that reality with grace.