Only in the traditional publishing world. Readers, especially genre readers on Kindle, do not care about the publisher, agent, or the industry trappings, they only want good stories. The situation is analagous to iphone or steam indie games: if you work hard and are persistent and can overcome the problem of visibility, you can find an audience and make a living. Some make six figures or more just on Kindle.

But you have a job, you don't need to do that. You can write part-time, focus on short stories, get a better idea of where your current ability level is, decide if it's a hobby you do want to pursue and to what extent, join critique groups, and then try to get published in short fiction markets. Short form lets you complete something, have it evaluated, withoug having sunk multiple years into a single manuscript.

The last thing an aspiring writer with a full-time job should do is get emotionally invested in a single novel that takes years to finish and never goes anywhere because they never learned to write fiction properly in the first place.

Self-publish your stuff. You have nothing in your way. The only thing stopping you, in this case, is you.

Don't try to be an international bestseller. Just find a smaller group of true fans.

See: Kevin Kelly

See: Seth Godin <-- where I get much of my inspiration. He's REALLY good.

Oh yeah... don't stop coding. Keep your day job. Write on the side. Fund your dream. ;)

Thanks for the advice! I think there is a stigma against self publishing, but it’s probably he smarter choice in the kindle age.

The stigma exists for printed books but is much lesser for ebooks.

Yes, it's a gilded cage, but the door is unlocked. It's pretty easy as a software engineer in the Bay Area to take off a few months between jobs, so you can scratch your writing itch during that time. Alternatively, you might be able to work 2-4 years while saving a bunch, and then take a year off to write.

You don't need to primarily rely on writing for income to be considered a writer. Granted, a day job and other commitments usually means it'll take a while to finish anything. But only career writers have to care about quantity.

Have you asked yourself what is worth more to you?

same but with music here. Just starting to pick it up to 'keep the dream alive' but there's no way I see being a full time composer would make anywhere near my salary in the IT field. Truly a first world problem though, so a lot to be thankful for.

Fortunately for me there are plenty of other musicians around whe want to at least produce some music and publish it. Even if it is at advanced hobby level. Getting ready to release our first four song EP, 80s inspired metal.

If you don't want kids, you can still FIRE before 40 and write then.