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The full Authors Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) report on author earnings for 2017 found that only 28% of respondents make their living from writing alone and 94% of those who completed the survey were white, sparking a warning from the Society of Authors that the trade is in danger of “becoming an elitist profession which excludes new and diverse voices”.
The full document, released for the first time this week, showed an overwhelming 94% of writers who responded were white, with a majority living in the south east. According to the survey, just 1% of writers responding were black, 2% Asian and another 2% of mixed race. A total of 5,521 writers responded to the survey, commissioned by the ALCS and carried out by the University of Glasgow's CREATe centre. Of those, 48% were defined as professional authors – those who spend more than half their working time writing.
Headline figures from the report revealed last year showed women writers get just 74.9% of the income received by male writers, while authors’ median annual earnings had dropped to £10,497, down by 42% in real terms since 2006, the year of the previous report. The full report said the decline in earnings indicated “a seismic shift in the underlying market structure” with more research needed on potential explanations including “technological change and a shift towards a gig economy”.
Most professional writers supplement their income from other sources such as a second job, with just 28% of respondents making a living from writing alone, down from 40% in 2006. “It appears to have become significantly harder to become a full-time writer”, the authors concluded.
There was a far rosier picture when household earnings were taken into account, with median earnings for authors of £50,000 per annum and a mean of £81,000. However, the report authors said the need to rely on this “household subsidy” from their partner's jobs could contribute to a lack of diversity.
A breakdown of earnings showed publishing contracts were still authors’ main source of earnings, making up 73% of income on average. Compared to 2006, earnings from grants and bursaries have plunged “dramatically” from an average of £4,960 to just £730, with half of respondents getting no funding at all.
There also appeared to be a decline in author advances, with 69% saying they had received one, down from 82% in 2006. Median royalty rates, meanwhile, have been stable at 10% for a hardback and 8% for a paperback, while buy-out contracts appear to have declined.
Nicola Solomon, c.e.o. of the Society of Authors (SoA), described the results as a “wake-up call” for the publishing industry.
She said: “This excellent report reveals the scale of the challenge faced by authors and the wider industry. Authors are struggling to make a living from their writing, something which should worry authors, publishers and readers alike. The continued success of our world-leading publishing and creative industries will depend on the rewards being shared throughout the value chain.
“We are particularly concerned about the implications of these findings for diversity across the industry. It is clear that authors are having to subsidise their earnings from writing with other forms of income – this inevitably favours writers from more privileged households and backgrounds. There is a danger of writing becoming an elitist profession which excludes new and diverse voices.”
Overall, 41% of primary occupation writers - defined as where writing takes up more than half their working time - took professional advice from agents, lawyers or professional bodies like the SoA before signing a contract. Those who took professional advice and attempted to change their contract terms earned significantly more than those who didn’t.
Authors primarily writing teaching or educational materials had the highest average income outside of audio-visual work, of £47,157, ahead of fiction where the mean was £37,110. The report also showed the highest-earning professional authors take home 70% of the total earnings in the industry.
When the headline figures were initially released last year, they were disputed by the Publishers Association, with c.e.o. Stephen Lotinga claiming they were “unrecognisable to the majority of publishers as they just do not reflect the investments they are making in creative talent”. The PA declined to comment on the full report.
In a note on its methodology, the ACLS said its survey was sent to around 50,000 members on 22nd January 2018. A total of 5,521 respondents started the survey and 2,696 completed it.