Salon expose: a published writer's struggle to stay in the game
A tell-all depressing Salon story (subscription or free day-pass required) about the plight of a midlist published writer with advance and book sale numbers and any other detail you wanted to know as a published writer-to-be:
There was a time when my life as a writer overrode my innate cynicism and doubt, moved me to tell my young daughter, cornball as it seemed even then, that dreams do come true, if you really want them to. Because what is a book made of, if not the spun sugar of a writer's wildest dreams?
"Does it ever get better?" I asked Patty, my most successful writer friend, recounting my midlist author's tale of woe.
"Not substantially," she answered. "My books sell well now, but I never stop wondering what'll happen to me when they don't."
"So why do we bother?" I moaned.
"Because this is the thing we do best," she said simply. "What else would we do?"