Author earnings

Writers make less than you think

From Sarah Shaffi, for The Bookseller

The typical income for a professional author in 2013 was just £11,000, more than £5,000 below the income level considered to be a socially acceptable standard of living, according to research commissioned by The Authors’ Licensing & Collection Society (ALCS).

The ALCS said the research, commissioned from Queen Mary, University of London, showed these are “concerning times for writers”. Society of Authors chief executive Nicola Solomon also said she was "very concerned" at the findings, saying that the author's share of the profits of the publishing and book retailing business was falling and pointing out: "Authors are the one person who are 100% necessary [to the process]." 

Titled "What are words worth now?", the research report was based on findings from a total of 2,454 writers, of which 56% were men and 44% women. It showed that in 2013 11.5% of professional authors, defined as those who dedicate the majority of their time to writing, earned their income solely from writing.

This is a drop from the 40% who earned their living from writing in 2005, when the typical income for a professional author was £12,330.

So, I wonder, what is a typical job for a writer who does not earn his or her main income from writing?

Novelist Joanne Harris commented: “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.” Poet Wendy Cope said: “Most people know that a few writers make a lot of money. This survey tells us about the vast majority of writers, who don’t. It’s important that the public should understand this – and why it is so important for authors to be paid fairly for their work.”

And what is the typical income for an Indie author? 

The survey also looked at contracts and self-publishing.

Of the respondents, more than 69% said their contracts allowed them to retain copyright all or most of the time.

“Retaining copyright puts authors in a much stronger position in terms of negotiating where and how their works can be used,” the research said. “The best contracts clearly set out which rights authors are retaining or transferring.

“It is becoming increasingly important for writers to prove their ownership of rights in their works in order to secure key sources of income.”

A quarter of those who took part in the research had self-published, “with a typical return on their investment of 40%”. The ALCS said the mean investment recorded by this group was £2,470, £500 median. Nevertheless, of those who self-published, 86% said they would do so again.

Are Writers' Conferences worth it?

Guest post from Linda Collison

Writing is a lifelong process, a way of life. It’s essentially a solitary endeavor. So how do we practice? How do we refine? How do we connect with other writers? One way is to attend a writers conference. But conferences can be expensive and time-consuming. Really – are they worth it?

I’ve attended a number of conferences over the years.  In 1996 I entered, and won, the Maui Writers Conference.  The following year I signed with my first agent, again at Maui.. I  participated in the Napa Writers Conference at a week-long workshop led by Michael Cunningham, who subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for The Hours.  I've attended numerous shorter conferences, such as the Aspen Writers Conference (see my post The Night Editor-in-Chief Myrna Blyth taught me to pitch). I'm a decorated veteran -- complete with war wounds I don't like to talk about.  Are writers conferences worth it? It depends on what you’re looking for.

If you’re looking to "be discovered", I’d say probably not.  A powerful query letter is usually more effective than a pitch session at a crowded conference with a hung-over, jet-lagged literary agent who won't remember your well-rehearsed pitch nor readanything at the conference.  Mass meetings of wannabe writers are not the best venue for being discovered.  Whatever that means.

But If you’re looking for motivation,  if you’re seeking a mentor, if you’re looking for tangible ways to write better, write more productively, if you’re looking for critical  feedback on your writing (take a breath so you can finish this run-on sentence), if you’re looking to establish new literary connections and to recommit yourself to the writing life, then yes -- writers conferences can be worth the cost.  If you do your homework, commit yourself, and follow through when you return to the real world.

Before you sign up, ask yourself: What do I hope to achieve? How much time do I have to commit? How much can I afford? Am I willing to travel? Conferences can last a day, a weekend, a week. The focus can be on craft, or it can be on publishing and marketing. Be aware and chose which one best suits your needs.  But how do you know?

Persuaded that attending a writers' conference might be worthwhile?

Read more on Linda's blog

Faster than the human eye...

Only 4 months from the submission of the draft manuscript to the availability in bookshops of the final print edition!

After the euphoria of signing that contract, and then the buzz of developmental editing, copy editing, and proofreading, silence descends, and the author waits ... and waits ... and waits.

It can take years for a book to get into print and out to the stores.

Digital publishing has made all the difference -- and particularly so in Italy, it seems.

During a public event on June 23rd, Rizzoli unveiled the final winner of BigJump, the first literary award in Italy for self-published novels, launched by Rizzoli, Amazon’s KDP and the Italian start-up 20lines.

Out the three BigJump Category Winners, the romance novel “Dimmi se ne vale la pena” by Stefania Balotelli won the Rizzoli Bigjump Winner award that consists in the additional publishing of print edition (it was already published as ebook, a few weeks earlier together with the other two BigJump Category winners) . The print edition has been made available on all main Italian trade bookshops, only 36hrs after it was announced.

During the same event, Amazon’s KDP announced the BigJump KDP Winner among the 30 BigJump finalists, taking into consideration customers’ appreciation. It is “Il cammino delle parole” by Veronica Gussoni. The self-published novel gets, as prize, a special promotion support on Kindle Store in Italy.

To see much more about this exciting development, see DigitalBookWorld

Questions about self-publishing

A couple of years ago, I set up a blog or publishing on Kindle, called Kindle Publishing Hints.

I've had a lot of interesting questions (as well as many compliments).

And here is one of them:

Hi Joan,

Great walkthroughs. Quick question, as someone who has never used Amazon or Kindle, how does their royalties system work? Do you choose an amount for your book to be worth and it can then be downloaded from a Kindle Store, with you receiving a percentage of this purchase? Or is it a different procedure?
Thanks again!

My answer:

In your publish page there should be a link to the payment system. Everytime your book is downloaded, you get your portion of what you have agreed with KDP. It is paid to you every month (unless it is under $100, and you have opted for checks, in which case you won't get a check until the total is over $100). That sounds complicated, but it is a helluva lot better than traditional publisher payments, which come twice a year, and are very much backdated.

Now then, choosing how much to charge for each book. If you choose an amount under $9.99 you get 70% royalties in certain territories (not all). If you choose more than $9.99, it all turns to custard. The same happens if you choose an amount under $2.99. So you pick a price between $2.99 and $9.99. Which one you choose is up to you, but my impression is that if you make it too low, it looks as if you don't give a great rating to your own work -- and that if you make it too high, then you look arrogant!

Go figure.

Cheers, and thanks for your comment

Flight horror stories

Oh dear, it was indeed on Air New Zealand ... number ten in the Travel & Leisure survey ...

Two Air New Zealand pilots were stood down and their cabin crew offered counselling after a frightening mid-air incident on a packed transtasman flight.

The drama unfolded on flight NZ176 between Perth and Auckland on May 21, when the first officer was locked out of the cockpit for two minutes.

The captain did not respond to requests to open the locked door, alarming crew. The pair had apparently fallen out over a take-off delay.

Were they both men, I wonder?

It reminds me of a story . . . and no doubt it does you, too.

Publishing in Antarctica

Alexander Turnbull New Zealand and Pacific publications curator Fiona Oliver with the first books ever published in Antarctica, covered in packing cases and bound with seal skin.


From the Dominion Post

In the Antarctic winter of 1908, Ernest Shackleton got his men to publish a series of books. Those books, published to ward off "polar ennui" during the sunless winter month, became the first books to be published in Antarctica.

From next week, Wellington's Alexander Turnbull Library is offering a rare public viewing of a copy - bound in seal skin and covered in part of a packing case - of one of the books.

Turnbull New Zealand and Pacific publications curator Fiona Oliver said Shackleton believed the importance of the press was so great that he gave two men three weeks' training in using publishing gear before heading for Antarctica. His crew also carted down cast-iron printing and etching presses, probably at the expense of carrying home comforts for life on the ice.

The main reason was to sustain the crew's minds through the period of Antarctica's winter when the Sun never rose. It was also possibly to make some money from the books' sales on return.

Most copies were given away, but on one level it was a success: "No-one went mad," Oliver says. Between 75 and 100 copies were published. Of those, 30 were covered in pieces of packing cases and bound in treated seal skin, obtained from the seals the crew caught to eat and burn their blubber.

The Turnbull library has three bound copies. One still has the word "beans" from the packing case, another says "julienne soup" and the third, incomplete copy - bought last year for $37,000 - simply has the numeral "3".

The highly collectable books rarely came up for sale but, when one did in 2007, it sold for $84,000.

The printing press was set up at Cape Royds, at the foot of Mt Erebus. The conditions in those sunless winter weeks, when 15 men were confined to a 60 square metre hut, were grim. "The ink froze, salt in the water scratched the plates used for printing illustrations, smoke and dirt soiled the paper."

The books, each slightly different, include 10 written contributions, including stories, an article on the ascent of Mt Erebus, and verse. Shackleton has two published poems, under the nom de plume Nemo. Of the published volumes, some remain unaccounted for. One, which is referred to as "marmalade" for the packing case it was covered in, was found in a stable in northern England in 2006.

One of Turnbull's copies, "beans", will be on display at the Turnbull Gallery in Molesworth St from Monday. 

Declaring the difference

A scholar is arguing that the period after “the pursuit of happiness” — shown in an 1823 engraving — does not appear on the 1776 parchment original.

 JENNIFER SCHUESSLER reports in the New York Times

The error, according to Danielle Allen, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., concerns a period that appears right after the phrase “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in the transcript, but almost certainly not, she maintains, on the badly faded parchment original.

But does it make a difference?

Yes, she says.

It contributes to what she calls a "routine but serious misunderstanding" of the document.

The period creates the impression that the list of self-evident truths ends with the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” she says. But as intended by Thomas Jefferson, she argues, what comes next is just as important: the essential role of governments — “instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” — in securing those rights.

“The logic of the sentence moves from the value of individual rights to the importance of government as a tool for protecting those rights,” Ms. Allen said. “You lose that connection when the period gets added.”

Thinking of travelling?

MEGA-SHIP CRUISE LINES

RANK 2014	RANK 2013	NAME	SCORE
1	2	Disney Cruise Line	86.39
2	1	Celebrity Cruises	85.40
3	3	Cunard Line	84.17
4	4	Princess Cruises	82.21
5	5	Royal Caribbean International	81.57

LARGE-SHIP CRUISE LINES

RANK 2014	RANK 2013	NAME	SCORE
1	1	Crystal Cruises	92.58
2	3	Azamara Club Cruises	91.53
3	2	Regent Seven Seas Cruises	91.08
4	4	Oceania Cruises	89.29
5	5	Holland America Line	87.43
6	8	Cunard Line	84.67
7	6	Royal Caribbean International	82.33
8	9	Celebrity Cruises	81.28
9	7	Princess Cruises	80.78
10	10	Norwegian Cruise Line	75.79

SMALL-SHIP CRUISE LINES

RANK 2014	RANK 2013	NAME	SCORE
1	7	Paul Gauguin Cruises	93.25
2	1	Seabourn	93.02
2	3	Windstar Cruises	93.02
4	6	Regent Seven Seas Cruises	89.43
5	5	Silversea Cruises	88.67

RIVER CRUISE LINES

RANK 2014	RANK 2013	NAME	SCORE
1	1	Tauck	96.93
2	4	Viking Cruises	94.14
3	2	Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection	93.80
4	3	Grand Circle Cruise Line	92.19
5	5	AmaWaterways	88.48

DOMESTIC AIRLINES

RANK 2014	RANK 2013	NAME	SCORE
1	1	Virgin America	85.28
2	2	JetBlue Airways	80.63
3	4	Hawaiian Airlines	76.83
4	3	Southwest Airlines	76.36
5	-	Alaska Airlines	74.24

INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES

RANK 2014	RANK 2013	NAME	SCORE
1	1	Singapore Airlines	91.54
2	2	Emirates Airline	88.18
3	5	Cathay Pacific Airways	86.86
4	6	Virgin Atlantic Airways	85.21
5	4	Asiana Airlines	85.00
6	3	Qatar Airways	84.61
7	10	ANA (All Nippon Airways)	84.48
8	9	Thai Airways International	84.07
9	7	Korean Air	83.75
10	8	Air New Zealand	83.59

DOMESTIC AIRPORTS

RANK 2014	RANK 2013	NAME	SCORE
1	1	Portland International Airport, Oregon	78.02
2	2	Tampa International Airport, Florida	77.09
3	6	Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport	76.22
4	10	Charlotte Douglas International Airport, North Carolina	74.06
5	11	Orlando International Airport, Florida	73.50

INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS

RANK 2014	RANK 2013	NAME	SCORE
1	1	Singapore Changi Airport	92.27
2	3	Hong Kong International Airport	85.64
3	2	Dubai International, United Arab Emirates	84.97
4	-	Incheon International Airport, Seoul	82.87
5	-	Zurich Airport, Switzerland	80.86

From Travel and Leisure.com