How do I get a comfy literary life /lit? All I want in life is

>>8476334
Just take it up the ass, friend.

>>8476342
t-thanks dude

>>8476334
anyone?

>>8476334
Prerequisite for both: be willing to move
>Academia
You're correct, it is very difficult to get into academia for Literature or Writing, but you don't have to be the best at it. The key is motivation, tenacity, and clever resume building.
My first recommendation is do NOT pay for any graduate school. Apply to places that are fully funded with stipend. This way you can at least make some meager living while in training without going into debt. Even if you don't end up with a career in it, if you get a PhD you have at least spent several years in that world with no debts, which I imagine appeals to you.
Getting a job isn't terribly hard. You can be an instructor or adjunct for a class or two pretty easily, but it won't be a good living. What you want is tenure track, which is extremely difficult. This is where the resume building comes in. You need to be publishing in your chosen field, and build a good list of publications. If you do creative writing you need a book out. Between the publications and time adjuncting, you'll build your resume into something decent. Your next step is to get on full time somewhere sans tenure track, something along the lines of "assistant visiting professor." That can go two ways: you do that for a few years with job security and more decent pay, the school likes you and you end up being hired for a tenure track job. Or you use that as a springboard for applying to other schools, because this experience is still better than being an adjunct teaching comp.
>Publishing
It can have a good environment, depending on who you work for. Most of the big five and their imprints seem pretty cool, and a lot of people bounce around between them. For publishing you'll want to do a publishing course somewhere good, such as Columbia. From there you'll have the connections to get hired. You'll more than likely have to live in NYC. You will be very poor to start off. Mobility within one company isn't common, most of the time if you want to climb the latter you can hire on with somebody else. There don't tend to be hard feelings with this kind of thing, and if there's a higher rung at the company you were just at, they probably won't be pissed about you taking the better job elsewhere first.
Sauce: MFA dropout because lol funding, I know a lot of writers and people in the business and academia.

come to asia after you graduate and teach. its basically only /lit/ expats, and you can go to grad school when you come back to the states in a few years.

>>8478373
Where are you? Teaching to ankle-biters is for suckers.

>>8478348
I appreciate the detailed answer. thanks!

>>8478348
Fantastic advice. OP, if you're serious about following it, you should look into building an investment portfolio to finance yourself. If you're smart with rental properties, you can have a steady source of income equivalent to that of an actual job with nowhere near the amount of work required.