Don't Quit Your Day Job: The Adventures of a Midlist Author, is a
memoir recounting the five-decade writing career of Michael Fedo, whose
books have not attained best-seller status, despite receiving mostly
favorable reviews in publications such as The New York Times, Kirkus
Reviews, Booklist, Library Journal, among others. Rather than
complaining, however, the author points out that while few authors earn
a middle-class income from writing, aspiring writers can carve out a
satisfying niche through diligence. Rich in anecdotes, the author
encounters celebrities: James Stewart, Cloris Leachman; the late Lorenzo
Music, Richard Wilber, and Harry Golden. He also tells of the New York
Times assistant financial editor who didn't know what Workers
Compensation was, magazine fact checkers who questioned details in his
satirical fiction. This book should engage general readers curious about
the literary life of a workaday writer, as well as aspiring
authors-in-waiting.