News and Events

Counting the Cost of a Writing Career

6 March 2007

Research by the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (www.cippm.org.uk) reveals the struggle that authors face to survive financially.

The study, commissioned by the Author’s Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS), was led by Professor Martin Kretschmer and Professor Philip Hardwick of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management in BU’s Law School.

Results reveal that UK writers operate in a 'winner takes all' market. The typical UK author earns 33% less than the national average wage and that income continues to deteriorate in real terms. The survey compared the earnings of 25,000 authors in the UK and Germany.

The first ten years of a writers’ life would appear to be the toughest. The typical earnings of a British professional writer aged 25-34 are only £5,000 per annum - a third less than their counterparts in Germany.

This age bracket takes in those repaying student loans, starting out on their careers, getting on the property ladder and starting a family.

Authors also receive little recompense for work that appears on the internet with less than 15% of authors surveyed receiving any payment for on-line use of their work.

Among the other key findings:

The top 10% of authors earn more than 50% of total income. In other equally skilled professions the bottom 50% of workers earn nearly 40% of total income.
Only 20% of writers earn all their income from writing.
60% of professional writers need another job to survive.
There is a considerable gender gap in the earnings of professional writers. The research indicates a near 60/40 earnings bias in favour of men.
Authors who have engaged in disputes with their publishers/producers earn significantly more than their more compliant colleagues.

Professor Martin Kretschmer said: “In an era where the creative industries are feted as a major contributor to the national economy (7-8% of GDP), it is somewhat surprising that no reliable figures on the career structure and earnings of the creative professions are available.

CIPPM has tried to close this gap over many years. In 2004, the music sector was reviewed in a study for the Arts Council. Our latest study is focussing on authors in the literary and audio-visual sectors.

“The survey is the largest of its kind, and the first that was able to control the results against collecting society payments, as well as tax, insurance and labour force data held by the national statistics offices in Germany and the UK.

In devising policies for an innovative and diverse creative sector, in particular in relation to copyright, there’s no longer the excuse: We didn’t know.”

> Read the full report (pdf 172kb)