NotFreeAdvice

about the same as selling cars, guns, alcohol, and fast food, I would imagine.

Sure, some questions:

1) How much do you make in a "typical" year. I realize that there is ebb and flow in this sort of business, but you must have an idea of what you expect to make.

2) Of the above figure, what percentage comes from the national markets that you listed? You listed things like USA Today and CBS, because people will recognize them. Do they pay better? If so, do they dominate your income?

3) You said you ghost write on a daily basis. Do you do so, because you need to from a monetary standpoint? Or do you do so, just for the enjoyment?

4) What percentage of your time is devoted to finding new gigs?

5) I know you said you published books. Have they actually sold well? What percentage of your income is from the sale of these books?

I know this seems intrusive, but you said ask anything. And without actual numbers it is very difficult to judge the feasibility of this career path.

If you do actually wish to encourage others to be writers, then you should provide concrete information. Again, I am not trying to be a jerk -- just encouraging you to brush off the strictures of the American society, and actually share something of yourself that is useful to people trying to make a decision.

The problem was that I gave a single reply and was not allowed to return to it before it was implied that I had continued to dodge a question or that I was constrained by society. Odd conclusions, but I digress.

Ok. Well, I don't think it will be productive to discuss this more. So I will just accept this answer.

1. Is this a selection bias, though? Now that you are happy with your life, perhaps everything seems worth it now? Or do you really expect us to believe that you not once needed to make a choice that, at the time, seemed like you were sacrificing something?

2. Cool.

3. Cool. That is impressive. I would be hard pressed to find someone that had never written something that they didn't have a small moral twinge about.

4. "Truth is fact" invites the question "what is 'fact'?" Do you have an answer for this? It seems that the field of "knowing" is quite complex. What is a "fact"?

5. I am interpreting this statement as your writing is your therapy. You are not motivated by a worldview that you are trying to espouse, but rather by your own need for sanity? I am not judging this, just making sure I understand.

Cool. Sounds like you are really pursuing your dreams. Which is great to hear.

When you say you had to sacrifice a career in food -- it seems that you might have been sacrificing a measure of security. Perhaps not?

One last comment/question.

Fact is evidence-based. The banana is yellow because I can see it and it is yellow. That is fact.

Some people are yellow color blind. Some people are just plain blind. Is fact then relative?

And if fact is evidence based, you must assume things like the past exist. These leads to the conclusion that truth is built upon assumed axiom. Is all truth thus built? Or is there something that is known without axiom? (Of course, this is the famous Descartes problem -- one that even he could not solve).

Apparently, my bank account is my soul.

I don't think that anyone is trying to equate those two. And I certainly was not. However, these are fair questions to ask. Especially if one is going to try to make a go of it as a writer. After all, one must eat. And some people like to do other things as well.

Besides, your opening line was:

I am often asked questions by aspiring writers who hope to make something out of nothing in the writing business.

So, the natural question is "what is 'something'?"

Anyway, I apologize if it seems that people are only interested in your money. If you want questions about your soul...

1) What is the worst thing you have had to sacrifice for your writing career? Do you judge that to be worth it now?

2) How often do you find yourself ghost writing things that you do not agree with, just do you can pay the bills? If you don't now, did you ever?

3) Have you ever turned down a job, based on moral grounds?

4) What do you view as the beauty of life? What is the meaning of life? What do you think is "truth?" How do these ideas come across in your writing?

5) What is your primary motivation for writing?