Day Jobs And The Independent Author – Famous Authors Had Them, Too! [Infographic]

Many independent authors suffer the indignity of working jobs that just don’t nurture the artist within. Take heart – before they were famous, most every writer suffered the same sad fate of the “real job.” Actually, as this infographic indicates, some of these jobs bordered on the unreal.

As an independent author, you probably don’t have the opportunity to spend your days devoted to your writing – perhaps you’re tethered to a job that is paying the bills (or providing your health care), but your true passion is ignited in the hours you’re able to spend chasing your muse. Maybe you feel like the universe is playing a cruel joke, that your time could be spent doing something much more productive and, moreover, humankind is being denied the gift that is your poetry, prose, or research.

Well, the infographic below, posted by Unplag.com, might provide a modicum of comfort in the knowledge that you’re not alone. You’re not cut out for insurance sales, just as Kurt Vonnegut wasn’t destined to sell Saabs. Your time is wasted as a pet store clerk, just as Stephen King’s was as a high school janitor. And if you think working at Wal-Mart isn’t your true calling, what was J.D. Salinger thinking as the entertainment director of a Swedish Cruise liner?

Most of us aren’t born into doing what we love, we need to scrape and claw our way there. Maybe you’ll find comfort in the fact that some of the most revered writers of our day went through the same thing. Seriously, have you ever even heard of someone being an oyster pirate? Read on!