There are, of course, differences in the respective relationships between novelists, painters, musicians and film-makers and their audiences. It was possible for Jack Kerouac to write the majority of his oeuvre in the long gap between the publication of his first book, The Town and the City (1950), and his second, On the Road (1957). He could do so because the production costs inherent in fiction-writing are insignificant and he was able to support himself via the periods of unskilled labour that counterbalanced his travels in and beyond America. Although the search for publishers was a constant source of frustration for Kerouac until On the Road was accepted, he managed to complete and store a sizeable literary output in anticipation of eventual acceptance. Book publishing expenses are also relatively low – particularly when texts do not include high-quality illustrations – so it was possible for an independent company like San Francisco's City Lights to produce and market texts that could be distributed nationally and internationally by mail, as well as through book shops.