I've read a few stories about authors and they're not as rich as most people think. Most of thier money (unless they write a book a month and sell them all) come from other sources of income like writing scripts, being paid to show thier faces somewhere, if they live in hollywood then bit parts in shows pay a bit. Writing is a thankless task and though being paid 5-8 cents a word adds up to about 100-600 dollars it's not exactly something you can live off of. Though being paid for something you enjoy doing is a great dream. lol And though they do ask you more often for work or trust you to be a good author since you've had some stuff published no on really "falls all over you". Because there are thousands of wannabes out there (and some of them good ones too) who will gladly take anything as payment as long as thier work is seen and there's always the issue of space. If your name gets you in a magazine by bumping a would be future S.King then hurrah, but I don't think you should rely on that as it's what's currently keeping wannabes like us out of the market. :p Space is everything.