And They Never Lived Happily Ever After?

[changeling67]

It is truly depressing news to find that there isn't a lot of money in writing. According to Author's Licencing and Collection Society, 'a typical, full-time writer earns £11,000 a year' (Source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/ - Accessed 11/07/14).  Unless you hit the exceptionally big market, such as J.K. Rowling, or E.L. James (Fifty Shades) it is a pretty meagre sum and the profits are falling each year.

Chocolat author Joanne Harris observes that "It's good to see that finally we are becoming aware of just how little the average author earns. Not everyone can be a high-earning, high profile writer but all creators should have the right to be paid for what they do" (Source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/ - Accessed 11/07/14).  It appears that digital publishing and self-publishing seems to be the way.  According to sources, 'some 25% of writers have self-published a work, with a typical return on their investment of 40%. Eighty-six percent said they would self-publish again' (Source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/ - Accessed 11/07/14). I am not so sure - a friend of the family has recently published his own stuff and has been quite disappointed with the response.

Maybe understanding New Technology & Writing in my second year will reap fruit after all.  Nil desperandum - there must be other ways to market.

Full Story - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28207444

Comments

[koshien.livejournal.com]

Creative arts of any type seem to be the most maverick of occupations. That has always been the case, but even so £11,000 is very low and I suppose included in that figure are salaried folk who are paid to write filler for the media which then takes a further proportion away from writers who concentrate on one book at a time.

I am confused by the recent upsurge of self-publishing success stories that are being constantly bandied around, and then a friend on a lit course said that Amazon are aggressively sponsoring the media to champion their success stories, (which of course amount to a tiny percentage of authors who self-publish through them). I think maybe that Amazon are deliberately skewing the figures to such an extent that it is becoming the norm to think that anyone with what they think is a 'good' story can become a writer, self-publish and pay off their mortgage in a year.

[calico-pye.livejournal.com]

I agree with what you are saying. I just hadn't realised that even established writers with moderate success can find themselves living on a pittance. I know that Terry Pratchett was still doing his day job in the early days of the Discworld series and continued to do so until it REALLY picked up.