Time running out for exploitive event organisers?

Long post/rant here for the benefit of writers... The president of the Society of Authors Philip Pullman resigned today as a patron of Oxford Literary Festival because they do not pay authors.

He said: My position as President of the Society of Authors, which has been campaigning for fair payment for speakers at literary festivals, sat rather awkwardly with my position as Patron of the Oxford Literary Festival, because (despite urging from me and others over the years) it does not pay speakers. So I thought it was time I resigned as a Patron of the OLF.

The principle is very simple: a festival pays the people who supply the marquees, it pays the printers who print the brochure, it pays the rent for the lecture-halls and other places, it pays the people who run the administration and the publicity, it pays for the electricity it uses, it pays for the drinks and dinners it lays on: why is it that the authors, the very people at the centre of the whole thing, the only reason customers come along and buy their tickets in the first place, are the only ones who are expected to work for nothing?

Authors are often encouraged to make appearances for free on the basis that it will give them publicity and exposure but Pullman says that ‘doesn’t work’:

Well-known authors don’t need it, and the less well-known will never sell enough books to cover the costs of being away from the work that does pay (and not very well at that). Expecting authors to work (because it is work) for nothing is iniquitous, it always has been, and I’ve had enough of it.

Not only do Oxford not pay authors but they also impose a restraint of trade clause banning authors from any other signings etc in 30 days & within 40 miles.

​Here's a link to the festival's sponsors, should you wish to complain and/or boycott them. And yes it does include newspapers, TV channels, university colleges and book publishers who you might have thought would have some sympathy with authors. http://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/partners-sponsors