*sigh*

[ksmith]

An interesting post by an agent tailor-made to burst my little soap bubble dreams.

I dream of the quit-the-day-job deal. I am also a tad security-conscious. I once took one of those on-the-job personality tests--the results were a tie between "entrepreneur" and "security", which is about as conflicted a result as you can get.

To be a full-time writer. The books need to keep selling, and you need to keep writing them. For 20, 30, 40 years or more.

Comments

[rosefox]

I just quit my day job, the day I started taking a copy editing class. It's the third time in my life that I've left a job without knowing what the next one will be. I'm counting on freelance income to see me through until I can find a decent retail gig that will pay the bills and not ask anything of me outside of working hours.

I dream of freelancing for a living, but I don't ever want to depend on making money with fiction. Editing and journalism to other people's specifications, no problem. Stories on demand? Nuh-uh. Fortunately I'm a good editor and journalist as well as a fictionaut. I think I've got a shot at making it all work, but it's going to be tricky.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Good luck!

I admire anyone with the courage to just hold their nose and jump into the deep end of the pool. But I agree on not wanting to depend on fiction-writing income. The front lines of the entertainment wars--not a stable place to be.

[rosefox]

My parents are writers. I watched them both give up on novels and switch to more commercial products (my father to science/tech journalism, my mother to articles, how-tos, and little impulse-buy gift books). Even if I wasn't sure that depending on fiction income would kill the fun of it for me--and I really think it would--I would be highly skeptical of the market.