Are non-superstar authors (so not King, Rowling, etc) able to live off just writing or do they still need a day job?

Are non-superstar authors (so not King, Rowling, etc) able to live off just writing or do they still need a day job?

There are some authors who make quite a bit of money self publishing garbage.

if you have a fan-base, yes, but your books need to sell. I think it's 1.25 per copy sold if you go through a publisher (average), but if you sell it online it's all yours, etc.

selling you're writing is fairly similar to other mediums of product, like selling produce on the side of the road. if people like it, it will sell.

No self publisher has lived off their writing without getting picked up by a real publisher

I'm optimistic when I say that there are maybe 50 writers in the whole world who earn their livelihood on writing alone.
You have a better chance at becoming a rockstar

rock music is even more dead than literature

What do the various writers on the Bestsellers lists have has day jobs?

What about the alt-lit? Do they make enough to live off via self-publish?

their books are just marketing for their prostitution

I remember reading a piece by Robert McCammon in the early '90's where he mentioned he was shocked that he had to keep a day job until well after his third NYT best seller was published.
Less than 50 members of the SFWA support themselves solely by writing and for all but a few of those they live very simply.
There is this crazy idea that anyone that wants to can live a middle-class life as a fiction writer.
No.

Wrong bro.

Non-superstar writers don't actually exist.

All book are written by a stable of only about 1,000 writers in the world.

>he doesn't know Chuck Tingle

They often teach creative writing, and that's a pretty sweet job. The hardest part would be resisting the urge to plow undergrads to be desu.

Bump

Late capitalist civilisation has entered a stage of terminal stagnation, the best we can hope for is for a great war or ecological catastrophe to come along and sweep away all this bullshit world

Even hardly known published authors do just fine. But under them there is a sea of unpublished wanabees that don't see a dime in his life. Thing with books is that they're authors creation, he gets a big cut from everything that he writes. He's not a syndication writer for tv show without royalties, or a tv star that gets paid for what he does, author gets paid for every single book that he sells. Blokes that had a one hit wonder on Times best sellers list half a decade ago made millions for themselves.

>Late capitalist civilisation
>late
Oh this is only the beginning. Just wait until the digital revolution gets fully under sway. If you think global capitalism is inhuman now you are in for something downright Lovecraftian

Not the guy you're replying to, but I'm not so sure about that. The digital age has served to create a feeling in people that media should be free since it "isn't real" or whatever. See: the increasingly extreme amount of pirating that goes on on the internet, as well as the the rise of streaming services. Few people (at least in the US) buy physical media nowadays e.g. CDs, DVDs. The capitalist model is having to contort itself to battle this sentiment, and I don't know how thin it can stretch itself.

Pirating as a percentage has gone down while electronic purchase have skyrocketed

There will always be theft, but most people are willing to pay to avoid the headache of legal trouble and possible malware.

The average wage for the top 300 authors in Britain is 12,000 pounds, which is below minimum wage.

Most published authors work full-time, many in journalism, particularly freelance. Others are very savvy and just shill themselves out to any reading festival, government grant, writing placement they can. In the USA many teach creative writing. I myself work at a movie theater after hours.

I think the struggle will not be from a Big Brother angle, but actually from the destruction of our electrical infrastructure.

The internet is fostering more collective communication as a whole, which offers the chance of globalization that isn't pure colonialism/imperialistic bullshit.

Whether or not that window is closing and now subject to sheer censorship, or the fact that this generation has gotten so bloated on the freedom of the internet that it would be disastrous to take away everyone's favorite "toy", I'm not sure. For once, being spoiled by technology might be the saving grace to protecting meaningful communication over ignorance.

My brother did it for a number of years. He lived in Manhattan too so I imagine he must have made some good cash just to pay the cost of living.

It's actually disgusting how under-funded the arts are. No wonder our society is full of plebs.

what kind of fiction did he write?

>50
Bullshit.

There are hundreds if not thousands of writers living solely on that in the Netherlands alone.

[citation needed]