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It is therefor beyond me why more than say, the top 1 or 2% of writer expect to be able to make a living from it. If a writer enjoys writing, doing it in his/her spare time shouldn't be a burden. If it is perceived as not being enjoyable, well, find something more fun to do....
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There is a lot of truth to what you say, but much is unsaid. Which I will try to remedy!
It's hard for me to say that writing is "fun," like playing soccer is for you. If someone thinks it's "fun" to sit in a little room by yourself for hours on end, tapping at a keyboard, that's fine, but those shouldn't be our only writers.
We also want writers who approach the work as, well, work. Like a plumber. Do you only want plumbers who root out pipes for fun? Isn't it better to have a lot of them doing this work, building their skill, and providing quality plumbing work as a paying job?
At one point in our history, a person could actually make a living writing short stories for magazines. Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Ray Bradbury and many others were able to write a story and pay their rent...or better, if it was a sale to
The Saturday Evening Post. Before that, pulp writers made relatively good money, though they had to grind out a lot of material. TV largely killed all that (and now TV as a highly-paid enterprise for a writer is feeling the pain of reality shows and internet TV).
For a long time, one could be a "midlist" author with enough sales to get through to the next book. The conglomeration of publishing houses put the emphasis on the bestselling authors and the midlist has become an endangered species.
A beginning writer's prospects are dwindling. Now, it's pretty much, "Strike it rich as a bestseller or write as a hobby." I don't believe this is healthy for the industry or for society. It's like baseball without the minor leagues.
It actually has been possible in the past for a lot of people to make a decent living writing. Not everyone, of course, but a much wider array of authors than the few who make up the bestselling author list today. American literature has benefited from "writing as a job." As we approach the time (or it approaches us, like a freight train) where each new book competes with
everything that has ever been written, the prospects for writers are getting dimmer. You'll be able to publish your ebook and sell a hundred copies, but the chance of ever earning minimum wage for your effort is lottery-esque.
Unless, of course, you're a star on a miserable reality show who's only read two books in your entire life.