Goodreads asked Michael J. Sullivan:

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Michael J. Sullivan Can I rephrase this question to being, “What’s the best thing about being a published author?” (which I think is what you really want to know) because I’ve been writing stories since I was thirteen, and that’s sort of like asking what’s the best thing about being me?

The best thing about being successfully published is that I don’t have to work anymore. I’ve read many articles by authors who lament how hard it is write, how it’s a job like any other job. When I read these things I wonder how many of these people worked in a factory, a restaurant, or with a shovel? How many had a demeaning boss? A job isn’t a job when you’d choose to do it for free, or even pay to do it. That’s what writing novels is to me. I’ve done it since I was thirteen. I failed homework assignments in grade school because I was writing novels on a borrowed typewriter.

Now I get paid to do it.

When you receive enough money to support your family for doing something you’d do anyway, then you really don’t work anymore. And on top of that people thank you for it, which is sort of surreal.

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