When I got my first book contract, in 1987, I heard the same sad story that Ms. Doe heard in the mid-'90s. I was told I had missed the glory days of writing, that all would slide downhill, that we new writers might as well count on failing. Luckily, I had read "Little Women" as a girl, and knew from Jo's experiences in the city that writers have always had a hard time getting started, and most of them never make it.

What it comes down to is that writing is, as it has always been, a hard way to make a living, and what works are some much-maligned old-fashioned virtues: hard work, prudence and determination. Inspiration and good luck may get a career started, but work carries it past the lean early years (and for what it's worth, my first 10 years were a lot leaner than Ms. Doe's) and into a solid, if still insecure, maturity. I've had high numbers and low, good sell-throughs and bad, great reviews and horrible ones.

I'm still here. And unlike Ms. Doe, I'm not "waiting." I'm working on the book after the book that comes out this fall and several other projects. Every full-time writer I know is doing the same.

-- Elizabeth Moon

First, this article was complete crap. I get tired of hearing writers whine about how they're not successful, making money, etc. A number of other readers have chimed in on this, and I appreciated their comments, specifically Neal Pollack's. If you're writing for money, you must be crazy.

I've written a lot of freelance articles, and I think $200 was the most I ever made for one of them. That's fine with me because I have a good day job in advertising that provides me with a nice living. Like a lot of your readers, I write because I enjoy the work, I like the feeling of completing a project and seeing it published, and I feel a need to do it. Simple as that. I'm up at 5 most mornings working on my first novel, and my only hope for it is that I can get it published. I frankly don't care whether I ever make a penny off it. I'm much more interested in completing the book and seeing the fruits of my labor in print. Anything beyond that is bonus.

The only other thing I would add is that I've been employed full-time since I graduated from college, but I've still found time to write for magazines, an alternative weekly newspaper and my book. I would actually argue that the skills I've learned working a full-time job, i.e., discipline, a good work ethic, time management, etc., have made me a better writer because they make me focus and stay on task. I've also met so many unique people and had unusual experiences through work that are crucial to understanding the world. Maybe writers like Jane Austen Doe could benefit from a full-time job, too.

-- Branden Axtell

As a mid-list author with tiny advances from a small press, I felt lucky to be in the smaller pond. I've read a lot of articles bemoaning the sad state of affairs in publishing, how authors aren't part of houses anymore. The good news is that the smaller presses still care and publish books they believe in. If money were the issue, there wouldn't be small presses to begin with. There would just be one long line at Viking or Knopf.

Like it or not, there's a hierarchy here and the ones on the bottom feel most entitled to complain. The ones on the "low list" crane their necks upward to the mid and shout "Be grateful!" The mid-listers shade their eyes looking further upward to the lofty regions of the top tier, feeling left out of the echelon that clearly includes the undeserving. The ones on the top are silent; they're not going to rock the boat. After all, it's a little boat and there's a great big ocean out there.

I'm not asking Jane Doe to shut up. I'm not even going to weigh in on whether or not she has the right to complain. I'm saying that if she made it to the top we wouldn't be hearing from her because she wouldn't feel she has the "right" to complain. We all have the right to feel disenfranchised. We all share the possibility of being included. And there are people still willing to stick their necks out to write, publish and read books they believe in regardless of where they stand on the industry pyramid.

-- Alison Moore

The position Jane Doe finds herself in is one that would be envied by many talented writers. Jane Doe's complaints make her sound only interested in her career as a "writer." She gives us almost no indication (other than a few pretty much parenthetical sentences) that she has any real passion or love for the craft itself.

Writers have the ability to publish themselves, especially with today's technologies. A writer who wishes to self-publish has the advantage of being able to market their own work to their own liking, and even establish a small name in their community. Given the number of unknown authors out there published by big-name publishers, the only real difference between being an unknown corporate-published writer and an unknown self-published writer is that of money. I can't sympathize with a writer who writes purely for money.

-- Whit Frazier

I've published two books with a small publisher and one with a megapublisher. Every time I published a book, friends, relatives and co-workers asked, "When are you going on Oprah?" And were always surprised by my response: "Um ... never."

Maybe Salon readers are different, but most people I encounter don't understand why I need another source of income if I'm getting my books published. I think Ms. Doe did a lot of people a favor by explaining that getting published is not the same thing as gaining fame and fortune.

-- Carleen Brice

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