Plus ca change

Ginsberg found himself confronted with the typewriter. A story a day, that was his minimum task; two thousand words, preferably with a plot, development, a climax and a twist. After six months of this routine, he was beginning to feel an intense hatred of the short story, in fact of all writing. What an abominable occupation it was! What a struggle! For what meagre prizes! Only the middlemen, he felt, were to be envied; the publishers, editors, anthologists and functionaries who stood between the raw material and the public purse. ...the thought of writing another short story disgusted him. He had had enough of battering his head against a brick wall. In six months, three acceptances, by obscure magazines published from addresses deep in the countryside. Three stories at three or four guineas each; a little over ten pounds for six months' hard labour, exclusive of expenses or paper, postage and so on. He put the cover on the dusty typewriter...
From Scamp by Roland Camberton, republished soon by New London Editions