This project posits a seemingly straightforward, yet complex question to answer fully: contemporary literary authors, who are they, what do they do, what are they aiming at? Are authors artists who live for their art or professionals who live from their craft? Who is investing what time and social energy in this universe? From several perspectives and applying different methods the social identities of contemporary writers is studied empirically, in the context of a book market characterized by an increasing tension between the demands of the market and its tendencies of globalization, commercialization, mediatization and digitalization on the one hand and the conditions that literature as artistic communication imposes on writing on the other hand. Making use of diverse sources a wide range of relevant data is systematically collected to construct a collective biography of contemporary writers of fiction in the Dutch-speaking language area.