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You're missing the point. Heinlein wasn't an established author when he started! He wrote his first short story for a $50 contest, but wound up selling it to another magazine for $70. That was 1939. That's equivalent to $1085 in 2008. That's for 7,000 words. You would be lucky to get that today for an unsolicited submission; chances are you'd get close to half that.
Yes, most authors cannot live only from their writing. My point is the number of authors who can is becoming fewer and fewer, because sales are down. Because sales are down, it's even harder for new authors to break into the business, much less making a living at it.
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