Mammas, don’t let your babies grow up to be writers. That’s the grim takeaway from a report issued by the Authors Guild. Incomes earned by writing have dropped 24 percent since 2013, and half of all full-time authors earn less than the federal poverty level of $12,488. “The days of authors supporting themselves from writing may be coming to an end,” says Christine Larson, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Colorado who wrote the study. She contends that the 20th century was a rare historical era in which a relatively large number of people — including women and people of color — enjoyed success as writers. Those halcyon days are over. The closure of thousands of newspapers, magazines and websites leaves fewer places for writers to place their work. And ebooks — sold mostly by Amazon — earn less revenue than print books. Bestselling writers are surviving fine, but the real victims in this new economy are midlist literary authors, who are seeing their livelihoods evaporate. For instance, Katharine Weber, the author of seven well-received books, speaks candidly in the report about what that means. Back in the day, Weber used to earn six-figure advances; her most recent novel brought $2,000. “I feel I’m at the end of a tradition, the last of my kind,” she says. To slow or even reverse this trend, Larson recommends:
- publishers support physical bookstores more aggressively.
- legislators rein in Amazon’s dominance.
- authors work together to ensure fairer contracts.
- foundations fund serious literature that the free market won’t.
