Howlering Harlan Ellison --The Real Grumpy Old Man

Tom Whore (tomwhore@inetarena.com)
Thu, 14 Jan 1999 14:33:41 -0800 (PST)


BLAMES DROP IN INCOME ON PUBLISHING, TELEVISION, INTERNET, BOOKSTORE
CHAINS

World class fantasy author HARLAN ELLISON isn't happy about the current
market for writers, reports the LA TIMES. "1998 has been one of the worst
years for virtually every writer I know," he says. Ellison attributes the
writer's current plight to the dumbing down of America, in large part
because of television; the sorry, and increasingly consolidated, state of
publishing; the rise of the bookstore superpowers, and the Internet
explosion. He is brutal on the subject of the cultural impact of
cyberspace and the techies who love it: "The Internet has turned every
idiot with a PC into an opinion maker," he snaps, then goes on to lament,
"Since I made my bones, I've never made less than $200,000 a year. I'm
down to about 120 grand."