In the past year, I’ve read two pieces—one a recent long blog post, the other a book—by talented authors detailing how their careers went to hell. (Then they resurrected their careers by writing about it, but never mind.)
These weren’t “the publishing industry is dying and nobody can make a living writing books anymore” sort of stories that seem to pop up every couple of days. Besides, even in the best of times, not many folks made a living writing.
No, these were by young successful authors, authors who got big honking advances from major publishing houses. Yet, in short order, they were flat freakin’ max-out-the-credit-cards broke on their butts.