> Not to mention, an author would have to come out with one book a year to maintain that salary. I wouldn't classify releasing one book per year as a full time

> Not to mention, an author would have to come out with one book a year to maintain that salary. I wouldn't classify releasing one book per year as a full time job, at least not based upon on the data provided. Turning a writing into a full time job means: - Investing considerable time into promoting a book, in an effort to net more than 10,000 copies sold. - Writing books that are heavily based upon research, in which case your book should be selling for more than $15 per copy. - Publishing more than a book per year, most likely in forms other than books (unless you're an established author). I'm not going to pretend that consistently writing 300 words of publication quality material per day is easy. Some of us are lucky if we can do as much one day in a year. On the other hand, it should not be easy. At the very least, an author is implicitly asking each reader to invest several hours of their life into the product of their labors. Authors need to be willing to put as much effort into writing as readers put into their livelihood.