Lynn Coady in MoneySense

"Yet there’s always that one person who suggests that perhaps, once my time as a paid consultant is up, I’d like to meet over coffee and continue our discussions of his or her work. Because don’t I love writing? And talking about writing? Isn’t that my thing? No.

Novelists generally don’t - and can’t - make a living off the money they earn selling their books. We live off the work subsidiary to book-writing - speeches, readings, workshops, residencies, or writing essays like this one. The running roughshod begins when we’re expected to do this work for nothing, or next to nothing- because it’s not work, not really. It’s just our thing."