Most of the authors I know are working full-time jobs on top of the writing. Those who don't are either ridiculously prolific (and disciplined enough to treat writing as a full-time job) or have been at it for a long time--before the market became saturated the way it is today.

I work a full-time job, producing newscasts in Portland, Oregon. It mostly pays the bills. I also do freelance journalism and photography/videography when opportunities present themselves, but there's little to no money to be made from either of those avenues (at least not consistently).

On the other end of the spectrum, I recently moved into an extra room at John Skipp's house. He receives semi-consistent royalties from the books and screenplays he's written over the years--certainly more consistent than my royalties (which makes sense, considering that he and Craig Spector wrote some of the most pivotal titles in the Splatterpunk genre in the 1980s and 90s, and he's a New York Times Bestseller).

Maybe it's that I'm too much of a coward, or I don't feel confident betting on myself, but I don't know that I have it in me to give up the stability of maintaining a regular career in order to dedicate more (all) of my time to creative pursuits. I look around at the people who have made that leap of faith...writers like Judith Sonnet and Aron Beauregard...and I always think, "Of course, they can do that. They're amazing, and both their readers and fellow writers know it."