“What the profiles fail to reveal is that the literary apprenticeship is a lengthy one for the majority, that getting published at all is difficult, and to get paid enough to not do anything else but write is virtually a dream.

The supposed average money earned by a novelist is $10,000, but if that novel takes two years to write, then cut that in half, $5,000. As one online article trenchantly stated: ‘Most novelists and story writers would make more money if they worked full-time at McDonald’s.'”

At The Millions, The Writer Career Arc or Why We Love the Susan Boyle Story.

But I have to say if I worked full-time at McDonald’s I’d be dead by now, and by my own hand.