Writers' earnings

In the last month, there have been a few informative articles discussing how much authors earn:

The One Where Writing Books Is Not Really a Good Idea by Elle Griffin (Substack)
How Much Do Authors Make Per Book? by Sarah Nicolas (BookRiot)
How Much Do Authors Actually Earn? by Lincoln Michel (Substack)  Read more

The rest of the publishing world should be fifty shades of envious.

On Friday, Sourcebooks announced that they are launching a new imprint with E.L. James. What's more, the author behind the hit Fifty Shades trilogy and The Mister is bringing her entire publishing catalog with her.  Read more

Book publishing is unlike many industries in that its fundamental product, the writing, is not, for the most part, an in-house commodity. Publishers wait for their next new bestselling authors to arrive on no known date, writing about no pre-arranged topic, and in many if not most cases as people previously unknown.  Read more

The Society of AuthorsThe British authors’ organization, with a membership of over 7,000 writers. Membership is open to those who have had a book published, or who have an offer to publish (without subsidy by the author). Offers individual specialist advice and a range of publications to its members. Has also campaigned successfully on behalf of authors in general for improved terms and established a minimum terms agreement with many publishers. Recently campaigned to get the Public Lending Right fund increased from £5 million to £7 million for the year 2002/2003. Regularly uses input from members to produce comparative surveys of publishers’ royalty payment systems. http://www.societyofauthors.org/' second real-time survey confirms extent of impact of COVID-19 on authors' income and wellbeing as implications for daily life and publishing industry continue to emerge.

We have released the results of our second Authors in the Health Crisis survey assessing the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on authors' livelihoods.

A survey by the Authors Guild of its members earlier this month found a majority of authors had already lost significant income due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The Guild received 940 responses to its survey and asked if income from any source declined in recent weeks due to the crisis, 54% responded "yes," compared to 45% who responded "no."