"A scrawler of second- and third-rate stuff"

A quote I came across and liked from Albert Payson Terhune (now best known as the author of Lad: A Dog, but one of the bestselling authors of his day):

"I found I could make more money as a scrawler of second- and third-rate stuff. While it is a noble thing to starve in a garret and to leave to posterity a few precious volumes which all folk praise and few read, yet to me there was something better worthwhile in grinding out work which brought me plenty of cash, if no high repute.

"I had known what it was to be hungry. I did not care to risk the experience again, either for myself or for those who depended on me. Deliberately, happily, I sold my highly putative literary birthright for a very actual and bounteous mess of pottage."

Or as my mom used to say, there's nothing wrong with being a hack writer:-).