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Status anxiety

Simon Pegg is a winsome actor, but even he may struggle to make me look charming

Toby Young

Wednesday, 28th November 2007

Toby Young on the film of his life

Actors claim that the hardest thing about their profession is the ever-present possibility of rejection, but they have it easy compared to authors. First we have to find favour with an agent, then a publisher, then an editor, then the critics — on and on it goes. Rejection hangs over us like the Sword of Damocles, ready to fall at any second. Of the tens of thousands of authors working in the UK, the number who actually make a living from writing books — that is, earn enough to give up their day jobs — is probably no more than a dozen.

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