How long does a writer’s career last?

I’m reading an anthology of short stories featuring around 100 authors, and after each story, there’s a link to the author’s website. Most of these websites don’t work anymore; only a minority are still functioning. A few of the ones still up are either in a very archaic state—probably not updated since the early 2000s—or just the remnants of an old website. In short, many of these authors either abandoned their sites entirely, stopped writing, or moved to a different online space.

It makes me wonder how long a writer’s career can last. The answer is bound to vary widely, from a few weeks to many years. Some writers enter this world out of impulse or with a specific goal in mind, and once that impulse fades or the goal is achieved—or even found to be unreachable—they may leave writing behind. Still, it made me a bit sad to see all these dead-end links, marking the absence of a writer. I’d like to thank each of these writers for the beauty they brought to the world with their stories.