How many full-time sf writers in the history of the field?

[nancylebov]

In the comments to this interesting post, Steve Barnes says "There have been many hundreds of full-time SF writers in the 70 or so years that SF has really been active in America."

He isn't generally sloppy about that sort of thing, so he may well be right, but I've heard Cherryh and Bujold talk about what it took to go full-time, and it would surprise me if there were as many as two hundred in the history of the field. Subtract anyone who's living on inherited money (was their anyone other than Niven?) and I suppose we should put an asterix by the name of anyone who died of poverty.

For purposes of this discussion, it might be reasonable to include people who make a substantial part of their money from sf tie-ins, but I think they should be selling at least some original work.

Also, is it harder to go full-time now than it used to be?

Comments

[redbird]

I wonder if he's including pulp and other freelancers who we know as sf writers, but who made significant parts of their income writing in other fiction genres and/or nonfiction.

I also don't know whether, for example, it's reasonable to count someone like R. A. Lafferty, who started writing full-time after retiring from another career at an age where his colleagues would have retired and not taken up another career (as distinct from retiring from something else at 45 to write full-time).

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure, nor do I know whether Gene Wolfe could have made a living from his writing before he retired from his day job.

If Lafferty needed his pension to have enough to live on comfortably, then I'd say he shouldn't be counted. I'm hoping that there are few enough writers like Lafferty that it's possible to get a reasonable estimate without worrying too much about edge cases.

[redbird]

Knowing exactly what you mean, my reaction is nonetheless that there are very few writers like Lafferty.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I couldn't think of a way to rephrase it to avoid the problem.

More generally, there are a few writers that remind me of Lafferty because they use something of a tall tale style: Mark Helprin and Laura Esquivel (Like Water for Chocolate).

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Niven may have been born rich but his income from writing is enough to qualify him as a full-time pro, imo.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

There's also the issue of people who write full time but are also supported by their spouses. I think this would be a lot of people, because it's a lot of people I personally know.

[captain-button.livejournal.com]

Vague memory from 15-20 years ago. There was some book [1] where SF writer characters say that there were never more than a few dozen SF writers making real money at it. I asked an SF writer [2] friend about it at Aggiecon or Armadillocon and she more or less agreed. I think she said that out of 5000 SFWA members about 900 "made a living" at it according to an IRS definition which was something like "$5000 a year".

Note that all of this is from memory, so the numbers may be way off.

[1] I'm tempted to say Footfall by Niven and Pournelle, but I think it was actually some other story where SF authors are gathered to help deal with some SFnal crisis.

[2] She'd had several books published, but I don't know if she could have lived on her SF earnings.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... should a case of someone who died poor because of snafus in getting money that was coming to him (any examples besides H. Beam Piper?) get a double asterisk or half an asterisk?

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

I suppose it depends on ones standard of living, and what other household income there is. If you are reasonably healthy, and do your writing from home, with no commuting throw in you're saving tons of money on fuel, commuter coffee, eating out 'cause you were to busy/lazy/tired to cook something. You'd also spend a lot less on clothes if you're comfortable working in something other than office or factory gear.

Looking at Lois Bujold as an example. The twin cities area isn't one of the most expensive places to live. And also she only writes about one book every 10-14 months. I'm sure she's making more per book than a high percentage of the field, but that's one major paycheck a year, plus royalties. She'd probably be hard pressed to live in NYC, LA, Miami, Chicago or Boston at the same comfort level, in fact I don't think it'd be possible.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

During the Depression, a smaller writing income would have looked like enough to live on. On the other hand, sf writers would've been more likely to also write other kinds of pulp fiction.

[kiya]

Also subtract people who are supported by the income of a spouse or family member.

(Speaking as one of them. Who even has writing income this year: $25, a comp copy, and a discount on additional copies.)