Author incomes declining, writers’ union poll finds
TORONTO A new survey suggests Canadian writers are earning 27 per cent less than they were three years ago.
The Writers’ Union of Canada says average incomes plunged to $9,380 in 2017 from $12,879 in 2014.
The survey, titled Diminishing Returns: Creative Culture at Risk, was conducted last spring and asked union members and other writers to share details of their 2017 income.
Publishing royalties were the main source of income at 45 per cent, while corporate and government writing and freelance work provided 32 per cent combined.
Income from self-publishing grew to eight per cent, but the study says income from Access Copyright — which distributes copyright royalties to authors and publishers — dropped by an average of 42 per cent to just two per cent of income.
The data comes amid a federal review of the entire Copyright Act, and a legal battle in which several ministries of education and Ontario school boards claim they overpaid copyright fees.
Figures compiled by BookNet Canada found the number of print books sold fell four per cent in 2017 compared with 2016, while dollar sales dropped three per cent. That did not include sales of ebooks, digital audiobooks or used books. Kate Edwards of the Association of Canadian Publishers says that also doesn’t include sales to the education sector, which she says have dropped “significantly ” in the past five years.
More than half of the 1,499 participants were older writers: 31 per cent were over 70, while another 31 per cent were between 60 and 69. Just five per cent were younger than 40.