4 ms·

I know offhandedly that at one point it was possible to live on one's short fiction but now that's been entirely squeezed out. (Unless you're Ted Chiang.)

asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
That is sad. :( In happier news, I wonder if you can look at things in terms of "creators of entertainment" rather than just authors and get a happier picture. Like, for example, let's just consider authors and video game creators. Let's suppose that in the fifties, before video games, there were, say, 100,000 full-time fiction authors in the US. (That number sounds awfully high to me, but maybe.) Today, according to this article, there can only be at most about 7,000 full time fiction authors in the US. But according to this page[1], there are 260,000 people working in the videogaming industry. So if we only consider these two industries, that's 160,000 more people getting paid full time wages to create entertainment. That's sad if you want to be an author, but if you're concerned about the overall creation mix of society, then maybe it's not so sad. [1]: https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/employment/video-games-united-states/ https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/employment/vid...
- deleted 5y ago
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- dragonwriter 5y ago
  People “working in the videogaming industry” aren’t comparable to “fiction authors” but to “people working in the slice of the publishing industry involved in publishing fiction”. And the slice of the videogaming industry that is analogous to authors is probably a vastly smaller proportion than of print fiction publishing because there is so much more non-authorial stuff to do.
  - asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
    That's a good point! From what I can find about 750k people are working in the publishing industry overall. It's hard to find statistics just for fiction publishing. I have to admit I'm a little surprised. I would have thought by now the videogame industry would be bigger than books, but maybe it's not.
- bluGill 5y ago
  Don't forget the population difference. There are a lot more people now than back then. (I intentional didn't specify world population of some subset - interesting to think about each)
- KittenInABox 5y ago
  Writing novels isn't comparable to writing video games outside of very niche genres, which are probably in a similarly sad state to fiction overall.
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I-M-S 5y ago
Does Ted Chiang live off his writing though? AFAIK he makes his living as a technical writer! (this might have changed in the last couple of years though...)
- consciouskernel 5y ago
  Someone at Microsoft could probably check to see if he's still an employee, but I highly doubt he's still working a day job. Though maybe he is. He's surprisingly not that prolific for someone who's so successful with his writing.

asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago

That is sad. :( In happier news, I wonder if you can look at things in terms of "creators of entertainment" rather than just authors and get a happier picture. Like, for example, let's just consider authors and video game creators. Let's suppose that in the fifties, before video games, there were, say, 100,000 full-time fiction authors in the US. (That number sounds awfully high to me, but maybe.) Today, according to this article, there can only be at most about 7,000 full time fiction authors in the US. But according to this page[1], there are 260,000 people working in the videogaming industry. So if we only consider these two industries, that's 160,000 more people getting paid full time wages to create entertainment. That's sad if you want to be an author, but if you're concerned about the overall creation mix of society, then maybe it's not so sad. [1]: https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/employment/video-games-united-states/ https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/employment/vid...

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dragonwriter 5y ago
People “working in the videogaming industry” aren’t comparable to “fiction authors” but to “people working in the slice of the publishing industry involved in publishing fiction”. And the slice of the videogaming industry that is analogous to authors is probably a vastly smaller proportion than of print fiction publishing because there is so much more non-authorial stuff to do.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
  That's a good point! From what I can find about 750k people are working in the publishing industry overall. It's hard to find statistics just for fiction publishing. I have to admit I'm a little surprised. I would have thought by now the videogame industry would be bigger than books, but maybe it's not.
bluGill 5y ago
Don't forget the population difference. There are a lot more people now than back then. (I intentional didn't specify world population of some subset - interesting to think about each)
KittenInABox 5y ago
Writing novels isn't comparable to writing video games outside of very niche genres, which are probably in a similarly sad state to fiction overall.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

I-M-S 5y ago

Does Ted Chiang live off his writing though? AFAIK he makes his living as a technical writer! (this might have changed in the last couple of years though...)

consciouskernel 5y ago
Someone at Microsoft could probably check to see if he's still an employee, but I highly doubt he's still working a day job. Though maybe he is. He's surprisingly not that prolific for someone who's so successful with his writing.