Less Fun with Numbers

What are the odds of making a living off your writing?

According to author and engineer Greg Slominski, 1 in 380. “Or, if you tweak the numbers to allow for a range of error, 1 in 200 to 1 in 500″ — worse than the odds for “Division 1 college football players vying for slots in the pros,” and “way worse” than the odds for a Miss America contestant.

(Slominksi “has those calculations, too,” writes columnist Patti Thorn of his Miss America statistics. “But don’t ask me to double-check his work,” she adds — confirming, once again, that our schools need to teach girls better self-esteem in math class. Last we checked, the odds were simply 1 in 51 — as in, the number of states plus Washington D.C.)

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.