Government support for writers? Bah! humbug!!

I've posted this here before, but I think it bears repeating.

I pulled the following statistics out from a report which was commissioned by the UK-based Society of Authors in 2000. They make pretty depressing reading.


Sales of more than 50,000 paperbacks a year should yield an income of about
£20,000.

For most authors, average UK sales per title are in the region of 3,000 to
8,000 in paperback and 1,000 in hardback, which equates to an income of
between £2,500 and £5,000 per book.

75% of authors earned under £20,000 in 1999. The average annual income was
£16,000, while 5% (82) of authors polled earned more than £75,000. Only 3%
(51) earned over £100,000.

Although the national average wage was £20,919 when the report was compiled,
61% of the writers polled earned under £10,000. 46% earned under £5,000, of
whom 123 said that writing was their main source of income, while 14 had no
other source of income at all.

One author who earned between £20,000 and £30,000 commented, "Although I
earn a living wage, I have published more than 60 books, half of which are
in print, some of which have sold more than 200,000 copies worldwide. I am
considered highly successful. But I don't think my earnings reflect this."

The Society of Authors estimates that the number of full-time writers
supporting families by their writing is very small—probably nearer 1,000
than 2,000.

The level of advances is dropping. The majority of advances are under
£5,000. Only 51% of writers said that more than half their works earned out
their advances.

Of those who had given up salaried employment to write, only 32% were better
off.

Not sure... I think the original article is probably on the SoA site: I'll see if I can find a link.