The Authors Guild surveyed its membership and the members of 14 other writers organizations in 2018, receiving detailed responses from 5,067 authors. This included traditionally, hybrid and self-published authors who have commercially published one or more books. When discussing median incomes, the survey looked at both full-time and part-time authors. The respondents reported a median author income of $6,080, continuing a sharp decline over the last decade: $8,000 in 2014 and $10,500 in 2009 (per the Authors Guild’s 2015 Survey), down again from $12,850 in 2007, as reported in a joint Authors Guild/PEN survey. Earnings from book income alone fell even more, declining 21 percent to $3,100 in 2017 from $3,900 in 2013 and just over 50 percent from 2009’s median book earnings of $6,250. At the same time, overall earnings have leveled off since 2013 suggesting that authors who are still in the business are getting better at finding ways to bring in supplemental income related to their writing. In other words, the survey showed a shift in book earnings to other writing-related activities, such as speaking engagements, book reviewing or teaching.
Including those sources, respondents who identified themselves as full-time book authors still only earned a median income of $20,300, well below the federal poverty line for a family of three or more. Access the full results and data, HERE. "When you impoverish a nation’s authors, you impoverish its readers," said James Gleick, the Authors Guild’s president. He noted that more books are being published than ever, but that books of quality often demand time and research that can’t be sustained if an author also needs to teach and lecture to make ends meet. This raises serious concerns about the future of American literature-books that not only teach, inspire and elicit empathy in readers, but help define who Americans are and how the U.S. The one exception came among self-published authors, who saw book-related income almost double since 2013. Despite this uptick, overall median self-published income levels remain 58 percent lower than traditionally published authors.
This da ta has been created wi th the help of GSA Content Generator D emoversi on.
Among the factors contributing to the pressure on authorship, the Guild cited the growing dominance of Amazon over the marketplace, lower royalties and www.uneditedmeat.com advances for mid-list books (which publishers report comes from losses they are forced to pass on), including the extremely low royalties paid on the increasing number of deeply discounted sales and the 25 percent of net ebook royalty. In addition, many electronic uses, such as classroom course packs, Google Books and Open Library, are now made on a royalty-free basis arguing fair use, whereas royalties traditionally were paid for comparable analog uses. Increased competition from Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program adds to the equation, as do the massive number of books sold cheaply as new by Amazon resellers right alongside the publisher’s copies, often even claiming the buy box. Amazon controls approximately 85% of the self-published market and so most self-published authors have no options other than to accept Amazon’s non-negotiable terms. "Amazon, but also Google, Facebook and every other company getting into the content business, devalue what we produce to lower their costs for content distribution, and then take an unfair share of the profits from what remains for delivering that reduced product.
We get that they like to move fast and break things, but it’s no longer in their own interest to break us. If even the most talented of authors can no longer afford to write, to create, who’s going to provide the content? " asked Authors Guild vice president Richard Russo. Authors are having to take on other work. Just 21 percent of full-time published authors derived 100 percent of their individual income from book-related income last year. Only 57 percent of full-time published authors derived 100 percent of their individual incomes from book- and other writing-related activities combined. Self-published authors’ earnings are rising rapidly, but they still make less than traditionally published authors. While the median book-related income for self-published authors nearly doubled since 2013, rising to $1,951, they still earned 58 percent less than traditionally published authors. Among the authors surveyed who ranked in the top decile for book-related earnings, self-published authors earned 50 percent less with an annual median of $154,000.
This artic le has been created by GSA Con tent Generator DEMO !
0 in book-related income during the same time period. Those zero earners are not included in the mean figures provided above. When the zero earners for 2017 are included, they bring the mean total author earnings down to $1,784 and the book earnings down to just $490. "There was a time in America, not so very long ago, that dedicated, talented fiction and nonfiction writers who put in the time and learned the craft could make a living doing what they did best, while contributing enormously to American knowledge, culture and the arts. "Poverty is a form of censorship. That’s because creation costs. Writing requires resources, and amazon kindle it imposes opportunity costs. "Amazon’s market share (72 percent of the online book market and nearly 50 percent of all new books sold) allows it to lock publishers into a vise, relentlessly demanding increasing discounts and narrowing margins. "But maybe the worst blow to writers is Amazon’s online secondary market," Robinson continues.