A Labor Day Tribute To The Working Author

Butcher, baker, candlestick maker. Almost every author started off with another job before they became a published author. Many maintain another career outside of writing, even after they become successful authors. Earlier this week I was following a thread on one of the social networks where some "anonymous" contributor thought that authors had the easiest job in the world. I thought that odd, having written professionally at times and having found a big difference between writing and writing for the public. But it got me thinking, what did authors do as a job before they were published? I thought it might be interesting on this Labor Day weekend to celebrate the men and women of letters by asking that question and taking a look at some famous writers from the past from a labor standpoint.

Raymond Chandler worked as an oil company executive, a civil servant in England, and a book keeper before writing his first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot.". Ernest Hemingway worked as a newspaper reporter and an ambulance driver in Italy in World War II before starting his life as an author. Pearl S. Buck worked as a missionary in China and as a school teacher before East Wind:West Wind in 1930. William Somerset Maugham studied medicine.

Here’s an interesting video from David Corbett, Edna O'Brien, Peter Blauner, Patricia Bosworth, James Salter, Luis J. Rodriguez, and Susan Dunlap, courtesy of Open Road Media:

Among other contributing authors is Mark Terry, the author of the Derek Stillwater thrillers, who worked as cytogenetics technologist at Henry Ford Hospital and says, “My day job now is as a freelance nonfiction writer and editor.

New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey “worked for an aerospace company as a software developer, then as a substitute-teacher when I was transitioning into writing. Nine years spent at the former, around four at the latter.” He tells me,

“Nights as an aspiring comic lasted through both occupations and probably doesn’t carry as much weight. But hanging out at comedy clubs and taking classes did teach me a lot about writing, as did being part of a lot of student films in the Southern California area, and both helped a lot when I entered the writers program given by UCLA extension. I would leave one job and get home and start the second as a writer. Even before I was published I gave myself deadlines. I learned that from both college and days as an engineer. Every project must have a deadline.”

Article Author: The Dirty Lowdown

I was born in Pomona, California at a very young age. I had a pretty normal childhood…or I was a pretty normal child hood if mom is telling the story. I was a paperboy and washed cars, I bussed tables, I was a soda fountain jock jerk and a manic …

Visit The Dirty Lowdown's author page — The Dirty Lowdown's Blog