Last year I wrote about author under-earnings. How 54% of traditionally published authors, and 77% of self-published authors, make less than £600 a year from their writing.
Well, things continue to look a little bleak, with the announcement that best-selling, award-winning author Donal Ryan has had to return to his day job to keep up with mortgage payments.
"It's nearly impossible to make a living as a writer," he told the Sunday Independent this weekend, "You need to have something else on the go."
Do we value art too little, or housing too highly? Possibly a combination of both.
Meanwhile, exiting the EU seems set to strip British authors of any protection they might have had over royalty payments. Because, hey, those authors earn way too much as it is. Six hundred pounds? Why, in my great, great grandmother's day, that would have been a king's ransom. Don't know how bloody good they've got it these creative types, would have been burnt as witches once upon a time...
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