Summary

The text recounts the author's experiences with Jack Schaefer, the author of the renowned Western novel "Shane," while working at a bookstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the advice Schaefer gave to aspiring writers.

Abstract

The narrative reflects on the author's time as a bookstore manager in Santa Fe during the mid-1980s, where they had the privilege of interacting with celebrated author Jack Schaefer. Schaefer, known for his iconic novel "Shane," would frequent the store, sharing his experiences and insights into writing. Despite the book's success, Schaefer revealed that his financial gains were modest due to the low royalties of the time and the gradual sales over decades. He emphasized the importance of maintaining a day job, as even the success of the movie adaptation of "Shane" did not secure his financial independence. The author of the text, an aspiring writer themselves, found Schaefer's advice both sobering and inspiring, ultimately leading to their own departure from traditional employment decades later.

Opinions

Jack Schaefer's anecdote about earning two cents per book sold highlights the harsh economic realities of authorship, despite commercial success.
The author of the text expresses admiration for Schaefer's storytelling abilities and the valuable lessons he imparted during his visits to the bookstore.
Schaefer's advice to "not quit your day job" is presented as a pragmatic perspective for aspiring writers, acknowledging the financial challenges of a writing career.
The author reflects on their personal journey, indicating a mix of resignation and triumph in finally being able to quit their day job many years after hearing Schaefer's advice.
There is a hint of wistfulness and humor in the author's current desire for a new SUV, drawing a parallel to Schaefer's purchase of a pickup truck with his movie rights earnings.

Remembering Jack Schaefer

And the advice he gave writers

Back in the mid-1980s I had a management job at a bookstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I’ve worked in numerous bookstores across several states but working at that Santa Fe bookstore was one of my favorite bookstore jobs. While the pay was meager there was one particular perk of this particular bookstore and that is that it was in downtown Santa Fe and a lot of celebrities shopped there. A lot.

My favorite celebrity customer was Jack Schaefer who authored over 25 books. It was always exciting to meet successful authors. Jack Schaefer is best known for his first novel, Shane, which was published in 1949 and sold several million copies and was later made into a movie. That book has been credited with helping to start the ‘American western novel’ genre. (Nowadays it is being marketed as a teen/young adult novel.)

At the time I was working at that bookstore Mr. Schaefer was in his eighties. He would come into the store with his wife. She would then pass him off to us and then go do her shopping. An hour or so later she would come back to collect him and take him home. It was almost like we were babysitting him.

Oh, but how delightful that was! We would bring a chair from the back room out to the front of the store for him to sit in and then he would proceed to tell stories for an hour or so. (He hardly ever bought any books.) I think every employee in that store was an aspiring writer, including myself, so getting to listen to a master storyteller telling stories was a perk one simply can’t find at just any bookstore.

All of us employees would stop working and gather around Mr. Schaefer along with several customers and listen to his stories. It seemed he had an infinite supply of stories and a lot of them involved the art/craft of writing.

First and foremost, Jack Schaefer was a journalist. Journalism was what he studied and was his job for most of his life. Writing a novel was a secret dream of his but doing so was relegated to his spare time. His very first novel, Shane, was not published until he was 48 years old! While the novel was phenomenally successful, he never quit his job as a journalist. He kept writing novels in his spare time but none of them were ever as successful as his first one. (By the way, my first novel was published when I was 44 — and it was not even remotely successful.)

Being the successful author of a multi-million copy bestseller one might surmise that he was wealthy but he quickly set us straight on that. He told us that he never made enough money on his many books to be able to quit his job as a journalist.

“But Shane sold millions and millions of copies,” said one of the bookstore employees.

Mr. Schaefer looked at the employee, “Shane came out in 1949. You know how much a paperback book cost back then? Eighty-nine cents! You know how much of those eighty-nine cents went to me? Two cents! I made two cents in royalties on every book sold.”

The employee was doing math in his head, “But still, it sold millions and millions of copies…”

Mr. Schaefer interrupted him, “Those millions and millions of copies were sold over a period of over thirty years. Believe me, I was lucky if my royalties covered the electric bill.”

And then he told the story of when he sold the movie rights to the book…

“Everyone thinks I must be rich because my book was turned into a successful movie. You know what I did with the money for the movie rights? I spent most of it in just one day. I cashed the check then went down to the local car dealership and bought myself a brand new pickup truck! Paid for it lock, stock and barrel with cash. I never in my life felt so rich. But that is where the movie rights money went. I sure as hell couldn’t afford to quit my job.”

For an aspiring writer this was not overly inspiring.

Another story about Shane that he told is how, at the time he wrote it, he had never been west of the Mississippi River. It was a Western novel set in Wyoming but he wrote it from his house in Connecticut! He wrote a few more westerns from there until he married his second wife and they moved to New Mexico where he spent the rest of his life.

Like me, Jack Schaefer was a passionate lover of northern New Mexico. He called it Paradise. Although he wrote numerous other westerns he branched out and wrote some children’s books and some non-fiction books — mostly about the history of northern New Mexico which over the years he became an expert at. Eventually, he quit writing westerns altogether.

At the time of his stories in the bookstore he had not written a novel in years. He told us that he was collaborating with his wife on a nature book; a field guide to indigenous alpine wildflowers of northern New Mexico. I did some research and apparently that book never got published. He died just a few years later.

One of the things I remember most about Jack Schaefer’s stories was when one of the bookstore employees asked him what advice he would give to a young aspiring author.

Without hesitation, he replied, “Don’t quit your day job.”

Those were painful words for me to hear. There was nothing I wanted to do more than quit my day job and write full time. Well, over 3 decades later I FINALLY quit my day job a few months ago.

And now I am thinking that I really want a new car — preferably an SUV (great for hauling stuff). Without a day job I’d like to start doing more traveling. I am really starting to want that new vehicle but I don’t have the cashola right now.

So if anyone out there wants to buy the movie rights to any of my four novels please let me know. I might even consider a movie rights/vehicle trade.