Career in Writing
Two friends who hadn't seen each other for a while were having lunch and catching up with one another.
"I quit my job," one stated.
"Really?" his friend asked.
"I couldn't stand sitting in that office all day anymore," the first replied.
"So what are you doing with yourself now?" the second asked.
The first answered, "I've taken up a career in writing."
"That's great!" the second replied. "So have you sold anything yet?"
"I have," answered the first.
"What have you sold?" asked the second.
The first answered, "My Rolex, my saxophone, the TV, the stereo and several antiques."
7 comments:
I've sometimes joked about starting a career as a professional photographer and how I could manage it for a couple of years until the money ran out.
I wonder if in past decades or centuries there were as many people who tried to be writers but failed due to a total lack of talent. Or did people used to have more realistic goals?
I think affluence has given us more options. Up until about a century ago only the upper class could devote significant time to things that didn't make money because otherwise they starved. The only options were patronage or working excessive hours, unless someone became successful, and then it was still a lot of effort.
Yeah, it's less than a century yet that the emergence of the Middle Class has given a great number of people *any* leisure time at all for that kind of 'nonsense'.
It was probably better that way - I mean Dickens did it, so it can be done, but it required real talent and a real love. As well as the usual luck, but that's still a big factor anyway.
We also know from that article (from the author of Wool) that there are a surprisingly big number of self-published authors now who are making their own living that way.
The next Stephen King or J.K. Rowling will not be self-published.
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