A study surveyed and synthesized available information about the employment and earnings of authors over the 1970-1990 period. Data came from United States and other government censuses, a variety of surveys of authors, and from records of writers' unions and professional organizations. Results indicated that: (1) the author occupation is growing rapidly; (2) authors are concentrated in states along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts; (3) members of the author profession are well educated; (4) authors had higher rates of unemployment than other professional and technical workers, but lower rates than other artists; (5) compared to the average artist and the average professional and technical worker, authors were far more likely to be self-employed and less likely to work for private sector employers; (6) real personal income fell by $924 between 1969 and 1989; (7) significant disparities exist between the average earnings of men and women authors; (8) differences in earnings among White, Black, and Hispanic authors were smaller; (9) multiple job holding rates for authors in the United States and other countries were higher than for all other professional workers; (10) authors are primarily white with an average age around 40 years old; and (11) general patterns for authors in the United States tended to hold for authors in other parts of the world. (Contains 42 references and 75 tables of data.) (RS)