A matter of perspective

[ksmith]

Paging through this month's--well, October's--VANITY FAIR, the one with a topless Paris Hilton on the cover. Found an article entitled The New Establishment 2005, and saw that Dan Brown, author of the ubiquitous DaVinci Code, is ranked number 46. Seems that prior to taking the book world by storm, he was considered "a lower-midlist thriller writer" who had "reportedly agreed to write The DaVinci Code and his next book for $400,000 combined."

Is $400,000 a typical advance for two books by a lower-midlist thriller writer? If so, how can I become a lower-midlist thriller writer, please?

Comments

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Acting is even more disparate. People see the big actors and think, "Oh! I wanna do that and earn all that money!" and meanwhile, most wannabe actors are waiting tables. A bunch of them get regular or semi-regular gigs on TV or in commercials and earn a decent living that way. But the big stars are the great exception.

At least writers can hold down regular day jobs while pursuing the writing career. Actors have to be ready to drop everything to chase the audition or take the short-term gig.

And even though the upper echelon of writers probably doesn't earn anything close to the upper echelon of actors, they at least don't have to deal with paparazzi...

[merlinpole.livejournal.com]

A second cousin of mine went to New York City decades ago to be an actor. He had a few parts, but wound up becoming an executive in a non-profit organization, which mostly killed off his acting career.