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Irish authors and their jobs

  • 22-09-2022 08:25PM
    #1
    happydude742
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 67 ✭✭


    Here's a question that I've been wondering about..... how many of the esteemed Irish authors that you read are actually full time authors??? I read that Roddy Doyle was a primary teacher and quit after the Commitments movie came out in about 1993..... The uber-successful Marian Keyes/Sally Rooney types are surely full time authors while Eoin Colfer appears to have hit the kids-book jackpot too but beyond that.....

    Are people secretly working other jobs and writing at the weekend? I've seen Donal Ryan talk in interviews about how it just wasn't profitable to be an author anymore and I think he works in UL also. Just wondering about all the others.

    Is authoring a job or a side-gig in 2022????

    All opinions welcome :-D



Comments

  • #2
    rogber
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,708 ✭✭✭rogber


    Most need other income. Teaching creative writing, book reviews or journalism, judging writing competitions, copywriting or just regular jobs, but maybe part time. Very few can make a living from writing alone



  • #3
    growleaves
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,037 ✭✭✭growleaves


    Eavan Boland had a full-time job.

    Almost all poets have jobs. T.S. Eliot was a bank clerk.



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