'Ten grand a year, which is not too bad'

'I've never worked out what the actual rate of pay is for writing - I think it would be too depressing. It took me three and a half years to write the first book, which worked out at ten grand a year, which is not too bad.　That was just the advance. I've been able to live off that (supplemented by various other jobs) for four years now. I can't imagine how I would fund my life if I were to have kids. If I have to I'll go back to office temping, but there's nothing that I can do to a satisfactory level apart from writing.

My agent and other writers have told me that if I'd sold my book two years earlier, I might have made a lot of money, but everything is slowly sinking into the gutter. Still, I'm existing. And you get to do a lot of stuff that counts as holiday, such as going to different countries.'

Evie Wyld, author of After the Fire, a Still Small Voice