La Vie Bohème

This article points out that authors’ incomes have declined nearly 30% since 2005.

“The creative industries are thriving, generating £76bn per annum, yet professional writers have seen a near 30% reduction in earnings in recent years . . .  Consequently many are no longer able to sustain a career. The one truly irreplaceable link in the value chain is being stretched to breaking point.”

Let’s just say that I’m not surprised.

The article specifically deals with British authors, but I doubt it’s different in the US.  The huge benefits to writers promised by the digital revolution have largely evaded individual authors.

There are lots of reasons.  With self-publishing becoming an established route to the readers, more and more people are uploading their work.  It becomes more and more difficult to weed out the worthwhile books from millions of volumes of (largely self-published) crap, so many people don’t bother.  They only buy authors they’ve tried before and know they’ll like, which enriches established writers and makes it harder and harder for new writers to break in.

Yes, there are individual stories of wealth and success among the self-published, but there were always those sorts of stories, even before Amazon existed.  The vast majority of self-published writers sell less than 25 copies.

Another problem is that publishers are feeling the squeeze from Amazon, and so they pass the squeeze on to the artists.  Advances are smaller, and non-negotiable contracts swallow up all rights, and sub-rights that used to generate income for writers now swells publishers’ bank accounts.

There are only five mainstream publishers left.  There’s not a lot of competition between them, and a lot of competition between writers.

Writers are, basically, culture workers, and they’re being squeezed the same way other workers are being squeezed, by gigantic multinational entities focused on the bottom line, and by increased competition from desperate peers.

I’m trying to find something optimistic to say about this, and the only thing that comes do mind is that I am doing okay.  My ebooks are doing well enough, and as a result my income is probably higher (on average) than it was back in 2005.

But then I’m in a sweet spot.  I had over twenty novels out of print and ready to be scanned, and I already had readers who hadn’t seen everything I’d published.  I’m not a newbie trying to break in, I’m a respected writer with an eyeball-ready set of works.

So keep on buying my stuff, please!  I’ll try not to let you down.