AmWriting? More like Am Starving according to the Society of Authors!

The latest research data from the UK's Society of Authors does not make for happy reading if you a writer.

According to the results of their 2018 survey of author incomes (there were similar surveys in 2005 and 2013) the median annual income of a professional author is now £10,500 – well below the minimum wage in the UK. In real terms, taking inflation into account, this represents a fall in writing income of 42% since since 2005, and 15% since 2013.

Not surprisingly, just 13.7% of authors now earn their income solely from writing, compared with 40% in 2005. The term "professional" writer is defined as those for whom writing forms the major part of their working life – as distinct from people who earn something from their writing along with another main career.

The median annual writing income for all authors, professional or otherwise, was £3000 – a fall of almost 50% in real terms since 2005. There is also a growing gender gap, with women's average earnings from writing being about 75% of men's earnings. The SoA also cites an EU study which found that a professional author could, on average, expect to earn £6000 from the lifetime sales of each book. Considering how long it can take to research and write some books, you'd be better off stacking shelves in a supermarket!

What SoA chief executive Nicola Solomon says is the most disturbing aspect of these findings is that during the same period "large publishers are seeing their profits rocket". Data provided the Publishers Association themselves in 2016 showed authors received a total of £161 million in advances, royalties, and secondary rights revenue – which sounds a lot until you realise it represents just 3% of the publishing industry's turnover. 

In fact the profit margins of large publishers are currently running at about 13% and a shareholder in one of the big five publishers can expect to receive up to three times the amount paid to authors.

Authors are clearly the "product" – and if you want to make money out of books today, let some other mug do the writing while you buy shares in a publisher.