Yes, it has always been thus and not only writers, but in the other arts as well.
from the article:
Quote:
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Because of lower incomes, full-time writers are as rare as six-figure advances and stable newspaper columns. Most novelists and non-fiction authors we spoke to also have paying day jobs: lawyer, librarian, journalist, academic. Their literary careers are worked in around the edges.
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Which is typical. Very few fiction/poetry/etc writers actually make a 'living wage' from it. Most have a day job -- teaching, technical or journalistic writing, doctor, engineer etc.
Only the top tier like Steven King, etc. are able to live on it and even then we have the vast disparity between the incomes like his and the rest who have to have that day job just to survive.
