18.11.20
Last month the ASA conducted a survey of Australian writers and illustrators to collect essential data to present to Government in our submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry. Our huge thanks to all the Writers Centres and individual authors for your help in encouraging survey responses. We had over 1400 respondents to the survey and over the coming weeks we’ll be publishing articles on the key results of our survey regarding author earnings, royalties and digital lending rights.
One of the most concerning findings from the ASA Survey results is the perilously low state of author earnings. While earning a living as a writer or illustrator has always been challenging in Australia, the results of this survey demonstrate that authors are struggling to make even a basic living.
In the survey we asked: What is your average annual income from your creative practice?
Of the total respondents, almost 80% are earning less than $15,000 per year, with 49.7% earning between $0-$1,999 per year.
The findings for full-time writers are even more concerning:
53.6% of full-time writers indicated they earn on average less than $15,000 per year from their creative practice, with 23.2% of them earning on average between $0 and $1,999 per year.
The dire situation of author earnings has only been exacerbated by the outbreak of COVID-19. We asked: How has your writing income been impacted by COVID-19? More than 31% of respondents said their income has decreased.
The most significant damage done by the pandemic has been to appearance fees as visits to schools, libraries and festivals have been cancelled or pivoted to digital. 53.9% of respondents reported their events income had decreased, and almost 33% indicated they were not able to mitigate their losses by performing events online. Some respondents recorded a loss of $20,000 in appearance fees, and some authors reported earning nothing from their online appearances. Given that income from events is a key way to supplement author income, these results are particularly concerning.
Author Nick Earls says, “When the country went into the first lockdown in late March, I saw the stark contrast between the importance of books and the earnings of authors. My diary emptied over the course of a few days, losing months of school and library bookings, festivals, interstate conference keynotes and more. At the same time, I was hearing everyday from readers shut in at home, who’d pull a book of mine from their shelves to read and take their mind away from the pandemic. They were telling me reading those books was getting them through. I was being read all over the country, yet the crash in my earnings was continuing unabated.”
ASA CEO Olivia Lanchester says, “These survey results are not just a concern for our members but should be a concern for our whole industry and, more broadly, our community. There is a fundamental disconnect between the enormous value and importance the Australian public ascribes to books and the difficulties authors face earning a living delivering that value.
We are particularly concerned about the hollowing out of the middle ground. We know there are a few authors at the top earning a living but midlist authors are under huge pressure reporting fewer publishing opportunities, lower advances, the impact of COVID on event income, a contraction of freelance opportunities, and increased pressure on their time for non-writing activities such as social media and marketing. There has always been a long tail in publishing but our concern is that the tail is growing even longer and thinner than ever.”
Recently, the ASA commissioned a report from Nielsen Book in which Nielsen reported on book sales for the last three years. This research demonstrates how few books make it to the top end of the Australian market. Of all the unique titles sold in Australia within 2018 – 2020 YTD, on average, only 1% of titles sold over 1,000 copies each in a year. We’ll report more on this research in our next ASA Survey results article.
In the survey we asked: In the wake of COVID-19 how optimistic are you about the ability to earn a living as a writer? 54.7% of respondents indicated a pessimistic outlook, with 24% reporting feeling neither optimistic nor pessimistic.
This situation is unsustainable. Particularly at a time when there is a pressing need for increased diversity and plurality of perspectives in the publishing industry - we risk rendering publishing the domain of the privileged few who can afford to write.
This is why, in our comprehensive submission to the Federal Inquiry, we have called for an overhaul of the way the Government invests in and supports our sector. We have proposed a 6-step plan to ensure the sustainability of Australian literature including:
We have been so impressed by the high volume of authors who have made impassioned submissions to the Inquiry, and we ask our members and peers to join us in calling for action from Government: share the news of these findings, continue the conversation about the immense value of Australian literature, and write a letter to your local MP.
For more information read the ASA submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry here.
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