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WRITING
Writing Used To Pay
Even controlled for inflation, we’re making much less now
Kurt Vonnegut quit his day job as a publicist at General Electric after selling one story to Collier’s magazine for $750 and a second one for $950.**
That was about 75 years ago, and let’s be honest: Most freelance writers would welcome those numbers now, although we wouldn’t quit our day jobs over them.
In case you’re wondering what $750 in 1950 would be in 2024, it’s $9,843.10, according to the .
People just don’t read as much now
Well, they don’t read books and magazines as much, anyway. Most magazines and newspapers are dying or already dead. Some of you read here on Medium, Substack or similar places. Some of you read books on a device and it’s remotely possible that one or two of you occasionally pick up something printed on paper and read it.
Because of these changing trends, the ability to make a living as a writer has never been better and never been worse. To paraphrase another writer, it is the best of times, it is the worst of times.
