Goodreads asked Sarah Rose:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Sarah Rose I'm going to tell you what Richard Ford told me when I was 19 and in his class and I asked him the same question: Marry someone who is willing to support you.

I did not do this.

So insert all the handwaving feminist responses here. We shouldn't be dependent, etc etc. I agree!

But...

Richard is one of our greatest living writers and he did it because Kristina believed in him. She got a job, he stayed home and wrote beautiful books and stories and the world is forever better for it.

So the best advice is find someone who believes in you. Disaggregate writing from earning a living and live with your soulmate.

The second best advice is do not do what I did, which is enter a declining market and keep trying to earn a living as a reporter, an editor, an author, as magazines and newspapers fold and pay rates bottom out. It's all hardship, even when you're successful at it. The mental load of worrying about rent takes a bite out of your writing ability.

There is a huge upside to writing for money, and that it necessity. My landlord demands my money every month and it keeps my butt in a chair. I have to pay attention to what is selling, to what readers want. And I believe --firmly -- that we write to be read. So knowing that a book has to sell, or an article I pitch has to be bought, shapes the outcome. I always have a reader in mind.

So if you can't find your soulmate -- and so far, I can't -- always write to be read.

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