M.I.A. No More
James and I went to Oberlin to visit Grey, and what a wonderful time we had! Grey's friends are lovely, and the campus is idyllic--a sort of little Hogwarts, especially when seen from the rooftop of one of the buildings at night, where his friend Aries took us to stargaze. It was our first visit to the school since he started, so we were really excited to see everything and to celebrate Grey's 20th birthday with him. Happy Birthday, Grey!
Speaking of Hogwarts, former single-mom-on-welfare J.K. Rowling was the highest-earning author in the world last year. According to Forbes, here's what she and the others in the top 5 raked in:
J.K. Rowling $300 million
James Patterson $50 million
Stephen King $45 million
Tom Clancy $35 million
Danielle Steel $30 million.
The other earners in the top ten are John Grisham ($25 million), Dean Koontz (also $25 million), Ken Follett ($20 million), Janet Evanovich ($17 million), and Nicholas Sparks ($16 million--and if you recently retched over Nights in Rodanthe, a.k.a. Katrina for Rich White People--oh, you didn't know a catastrophic storm was a catalyst for hot middle-aged sex?--you've got to wonder who's slurping up what Sparks is selling. What's he selling? Sparks, I guess. Fantasy sparks.)
Notes on race and gender: all 10 top-earning authors are white, and 7 out of the 10 are men.
I've heard that only about 400 writers in the U.S. are able to earn their entire livings by writing. Most writers--even successful, award-winning literary types--keep their day-jobs.
And in an economy in which food stamp participation rates are at their highest since Katrina and Rita, we're lucky to have them. I don't know about you, but I just watched my 401K lose a chunk of money. I'm going to be hanging on to my day-job as long as possible, and with job loss like it is, I'm going to feel grateful just to have the chance to work.
Speaking of Hogwarts, former single-mom-on-welfare J.K. Rowling was the highest-earning author in the world last year. According to Forbes, here's what she and the others in the top 5 raked in:
J.K. Rowling $300 million
James Patterson $50 million
Stephen King $45 million
Tom Clancy $35 million
Danielle Steel $30 million.
The other earners in the top ten are John Grisham ($25 million), Dean Koontz (also $25 million), Ken Follett ($20 million), Janet Evanovich ($17 million), and Nicholas Sparks ($16 million--and if you recently retched over Nights in Rodanthe, a.k.a. Katrina for Rich White People--oh, you didn't know a catastrophic storm was a catalyst for hot middle-aged sex?--you've got to wonder who's slurping up what Sparks is selling. What's he selling? Sparks, I guess. Fantasy sparks.)
Notes on race and gender: all 10 top-earning authors are white, and 7 out of the 10 are men.
I've heard that only about 400 writers in the U.S. are able to earn their entire livings by writing. Most writers--even successful, award-winning literary types--keep their day-jobs.
And in an economy in which food stamp participation rates are at their highest since Katrina and Rita, we're lucky to have them. I don't know about you, but I just watched my 401K lose a chunk of money. I'm going to be hanging on to my day-job as long as possible, and with job loss like it is, I'm going to feel grateful just to have the chance to work.
fayepoet said:
So glad to have you back. I'm still thinking about Margaret Atwood's comfortable shoes, how easily I now shop for comfort in comparison to many moons ago when pointy toes were the rage and wobbly, aching feet were worth the price of style. So now we have "literary style"— what pays and what doesn't. As an almost MFA graduate (3 months to go),there's the question of how to gain comfort and compete in the marketplace of publishing— be it literary or mainstream. It seems to me that Rowling followed her instincts— wrote what was harmonious to her imagination and aesthetic and it paid off, big time! Grisham had a formula that worked for a long time.I certainly enjoyed his early books. So, does earning viability, in part, depend on one's ability to develop a marketplace mentality and does that mean limiting one's creative imagination?
October 12, 2008 3:28 PMSpeaking of imagination, any word from your editor on your book? Hope it's all good.
Julie Ann
said:
At least Dan Brown isn't on the list....
October 13, 2008 4:42 PM