其实文人能靠独立自主的写作挣钱，也仅是现代这两三百年的事情。因为有了印刷术，书籍能大量印刷，就衍生了出版商人，与作者签约，一同使书籍放在书店销售。从而这点稿费，可以养活部分职业作者，他们不算富裕，但勉强可以作为中产阶级存活。但是奇怪的是，印刷术起源于中国，但出版商却起源于欧洲，像欧洲19世纪的司各特、托尔斯泰、巴尔扎克、大仲马都能靠出书养活自己，但像中国古代最有名的罗贯中、施耐庵、曹雪芹、蒲松龄等小说大师都无法出书，生活至为贫困，或许这与人民的识字普及率有关。中国在20世纪的民国时代，广泛引进西方制度，开办学校，普及识字率，推崇文化，所以那个时候也出了鲁迅、张恨水、张爱玲、等等能靠写作养活自己的中产阶级作家。至于现代，由于各国政府开明，言论自由，出版自由，生活富裕，所以整个世界的文学业、小说业都在蓬勃发展，还有诺贝尔文学奖、布克奖的支持，所以出了很多资产数亿的作家。但这比起其它行业的工厂主、科学家、官僚来说远远不够，因为当代书籍的精神价值远远遭到金钱价值的低估，导致很多中层作者收入薄弱，更何况是最底层的作者相当于饿死的状态。
In fact, it is only in the past two or three hundred years that literati have been able to make money by writing independently. With the advent of printing, books can be printed in large quantities, and publishers have emerged. They sign contracts with authors and sell books in bookstores together. Therefore, this little bit of royalties can support some professional authors. They are not rich, but they can barely survive as middle-class people. But strangely, printing originated in China, but publishers originated in Europe. Scott, Tolstoy, Balzac, and Dumas in Europe in the 19th century could support themselves by publishing books, but the most famous novel masters in ancient China, such as Luo Guanzhong, Shi Naian, Cao Xueqin, and Pu Songling, could not publish books and lived in poverty. Perhaps this is related to the literacy rate of the people. In the Republic of China era in the 20th century, China widely introduced Western systems, opened schools, popularized literacy, and promoted culture. Therefore, at that time, there were also middle-class writers such as Lu Xun, Zhang Henshui, Zhang Ailing, etc. who could support themselves by writing. As for modern times, due to the enlightened governments, freedom of speech, freedom of publication, and affluent life, the world's literary and fiction industries are booming, and with the support of the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Booker Prize, many writers with assets worth hundreds of millions have emerged. But this is far from enough compared to factory owners, scientists, and bureaucrats in other industries, because the spiritual value of contemporary books is far underestimated by their monetary value, resulting in low incomes for many middle-level authors, not to mention that the lowest-level authors are in a state of starvation.
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