7 ms·

From what I've read, people did make a living writing short stories at one point. You probably still had to write a LOT. There were many more pubs to publish t

From what I've read, people did make a living writing short stories at one point. You probably still had to write a LOT. There were many more pubs to publish to and more people bought short story anthologies.

meheleventyone 4y ago
Back in the pulp era it was common for authors to churn out books under multiple names. There’s definitely a bit of that (including the questionable quality) in the self-publishing market but it’s much less visible.
kleer001 4y ago
Things like rent and food were also relatively cheaper back then too.
- f17 4y ago
  This is a major factor. Also, day jobs were a lot more chill. Writers still complained about having to go to an office job, but you could use the copious downtime on some of the work. You wouldn't want to do hardcore creative first-draft writing at your office job, but you could edit for typos and do background reading. These days, so many fascistic surveillance technologies have been deployed to squeeze the downtime out of existence for most jobs. You could have a 1950s day job (well, if you were middle class) and be a writer, but you can't really have a 2020s day job and be a writer, because jobs are so much more stressful.
  - barry-cotter 4y ago
    > but you can't really have a 2020s day job and be a writer, because jobs are so much more stressful. This is disproven by the large majority of authors having a day job. Most people can’t have a day job and be a writer but the sentence is just as true as “Most people can’t be a writer.”
- barry-cotter 4y ago
  Rent as a percentage of income is remarkably steady historically because it’s always as high as the market will bear. That’s the rationale behind Georgist Land Value Taxes. You can pay it to the government and the landowner or the landowner, the amount of rent will be the same. Food has gotten cheaper as well as tastier and higher quality over time. The proportion of income spent on food has been dropping for well over 100 years.
  - kleer001 4y ago
    > Rent as a percentage of income is remarkably steady historically https://www.realestatewitch.com/rent-to-income-ratio-2022/ https://www.realestatewitch.com/rent-to-income-ratio-2022/ and https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/differences-in-rent-growth-by-income-1985-2019-and-implications-for-real-income-inequality-20211105.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/diff... and https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/04/how-america-spends-money-100-years-in-the-life-of-the-family-budget/255475/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/04/how-ame... So, depends on what you mean by steady. ~3%-ish growth (at the worst) in my book is not steady. But yea, totally less expensive and wider availability of high quality food is great to be reminded of, thanks!
deleted 4y ago
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meheleventyone 4y ago

Back in the pulp era it was common for authors to churn out books under multiple names. There’s definitely a bit of that (including the questionable quality) in the self-publishing market but it’s much less visible.

kleer001 4y ago

Things like rent and food were also relatively cheaper back then too.

f17 4y ago
This is a major factor. Also, day jobs were a lot more chill. Writers still complained about having to go to an office job, but you could use the copious downtime on some of the work. You wouldn't want to do hardcore creative first-draft writing at your office job, but you could edit for typos and do background reading. These days, so many fascistic surveillance technologies have been deployed to squeeze the downtime out of existence for most jobs. You could have a 1950s day job (well, if you were middle class) and be a writer, but you can't really have a 2020s day job and be a writer, because jobs are so much more stressful.
- barry-cotter 4y ago
  > but you can't really have a 2020s day job and be a writer, because jobs are so much more stressful. This is disproven by the large majority of authors having a day job. Most people can’t have a day job and be a writer but the sentence is just as true as “Most people can’t be a writer.”
barry-cotter 4y ago
Rent as a percentage of income is remarkably steady historically because it’s always as high as the market will bear. That’s the rationale behind Georgist Land Value Taxes. You can pay it to the government and the landowner or the landowner, the amount of rent will be the same. Food has gotten cheaper as well as tastier and higher quality over time. The proportion of income spent on food has been dropping for well over 100 years.
- kleer001 4y ago
  > Rent as a percentage of income is remarkably steady historically https://www.realestatewitch.com/rent-to-income-ratio-2022/ https://www.realestatewitch.com/rent-to-income-ratio-2022/ and https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/differences-in-rent-growth-by-income-1985-2019-and-implications-for-real-income-inequality-20211105.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/diff... and https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/04/how-america-spends-money-100-years-in-the-life-of-the-family-budget/255475/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/04/how-ame... So, depends on what you mean by steady. ~3%-ish growth (at the worst) in my book is not steady. But yea, totally less expensive and wider availability of high quality food is great to be reminded of, thanks!

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]