The only true thing about publishing these
days is that nothing ever stays the same. I’m not sure that it should. Some changes
are for the better, but based on a study by the Authors’ Licensing &
Collection Society (ALCS), income for U.K. writers has dropped significantly over
recent years.
2,454 authors took part in the study, 56% men,
and 44% women. By the way, 17% of respondents were age 44 or under, 54% were 45
to 64, and 29% were over 65. Whether age has any bearings on findings, I don’t
know. Based on the three articles I’ve read about the study, it seems that a
significant portion of the writers who took part were writing literary or
mainstream novels, however science fiction and children’s writers were also
quoted.
The study showed that many full-time,
professional writers are earning less money than they were eight years ago. For
the study’s purpose, a professional writer is someone who spends the majority
of their time writing and whose primary income comes from writing. The typical income
was about £11,000, yet in 2005 it was £12,330; a significant drop if you’re
depending on every penny to feed and house yourself. One development and
research foundation states that an individual needs about £16,850 to maintain a
socially acceptable standard of living in the U.K.
It’s no surprise, therefore, that the study
also showed that the majority of writers who made their living from writing
dropped about 40% from 2005 to only 11.5% .in 2013. In others words, many more writers
are supplementing their incomes through other means.
There are many more comments and stats
which you can read about through the links below. Discussion also refers to the
25% of self-published respondents. Hugh Howey’s name and his AuthorsEarnings report
was also mentioned in one of the pieces. What was missing for me was detailed
discussion about why this was happening. Certainly, there were references to
the worsening contracts for writers, and how the literary
novel is apparently dying. But any detailed analysis about changes in buying
and reading habits was lacking. What do book buyers have to say about all this?
Incidentally, the ALCS, will release a
more detailed report in the fall and hopefully that will generate more
discussion as to why incomes have declined so much.
You know, In the 30+ plus years I’ve been
writing and reading about these issues, a writer’s income has always been significantly
lower than the national average. That they are dropping even lower at a time
when publishing options have never been better for writers is perplexing on one
hand, but not so much on the other.
Given the many articles, blogs, and forums discussing
the rise in income for a growing number of independent authors, lots of us
believe that there’s hope for the future. But the highest money earners these
days seem to be writing romance, erotica, and fantasy. Will that change? Is the
reason for dropped incomes really as simple as genre writers increasingly outselling
their literary counterparts? On the other hand, there are more books being
released than ever, more competition than ever, and more free books being given
away than ever. It’s a complicated issue. Anyway, read the articles. I’d like
to hear your take on all this.
No comments:
Post a Comment