Andy Weir: How I Paid the Bills While I Wrote the Book
How Andy Weir Paid the Bills While He Wrote the Books
“At no point did I ever risk my financial security to become a writer.”Illustration: Lorenzo GrittiAndy Weir is the author of the bestselling novels The Martian and Artemis. The Martian, which he wrote while working as a software engineer, was originally released as a free serial and later made into a film starring Matt Damon. Here’s how he paid the bills.This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.Medium: Growing up, what did going to work look like to you?Andy Weir: My dad was a linear accelerator physicist. He got electrons going really, really fast, then hit things with them to see what they’d do. My mother was an electrical engineer. For Dad, it was a passion, but for Mom, it was a paycheck. She didn’t really like it, but it paid well. My parents got divorced, and Mom wanted to do whatever would make her the most money so she could properly be a single mom. But once I left, she went off to other careers.You studied computer science in college, but you also completed your first novel there. Were you taking writing classes?