Picture of struggling writer is no fiction — survey
New Zealand writers are being forced to take on other jobs to pay their bills.
A new Horizon Research report has found only 24 per cent of the average writer’s annual income came from writing.
The average yearly income from writing was $13,500.
Those authors kept themselves afloat by spending the majority of their time working in another field, unrelated to writing.
The report surveyed 380 New Zealand writers in a range of subjects including fiction, non-fiction, children’s books and academic work.
Historical fiction writer Kirsten McKenzie said it was very difficult to make a fulltime living from writing.
Her family had to make cutbacks to support her writing career, which she said was a necessary sacrifice to invest in the future.
“In the short term, we got rid of Sky, we got rid of our home phone line, all of those places where we could save money.
“I am in the luxurious position of having a husband who supports me financially, because being a fulltime writer would not currently be funded by my two books.”
McKenzie said writing wasn’t an easy career, even for those who hit it big.
“I’ve met Eleanor Catton, and even winning the Man Booker prize for The Luminaries isn’t enough for her to sit back and not work. Even she has to keep putting out books, and working, and lecturing, and the rest of it.
“So for those of us coming in behind her and not winning the Man Booker prize, it’s a long-term goal to earn money from writing.”
Along with the income woes, the survey found one in five writers had experienced copyright infringement.
Many reported that finding a publisher was becoming more difficult.
NZ Society of Authors president Kyle Mewburn said the survey was a stark presentation of the facts.
“The vast majority of writers are working at a minimum wage job with no insurance, overtime or holiday pay, and absolutely no job security,” Mewburn said. “We really need local readers to buy more local books from local bricks-and-mortar bookshops.” The full Horizon Research report is available at www.copyright.co.nz. was released showing him talking to the victim is not a person of interest.
The woman told police she woke in the quarry partially naked with a man standing over her.
She had no memory of how she got to the quarry but she managed to escape and call 111.
Police found her an hour later after having trouble finding her location.
She had been in Ponsonby at the Pride Parade with friends.
The group separated briefly and arranged to meet at a Karangahape Rd bar later in the night, but the woman never showed up.
She was last seen speaking to a man at the Mobil service station at the corner of Ponsonby and Karangahape roads at 10.20pm.
After police released his image, he was identified and spoken to “at length”.
“Police can [confirm] that this man is not a person of interest,” Libby said.
“Detectives have continued to review CCTV footage over the weekend and we have now established that at 1.15am on that Sunday morning, the victim has walked past McDonald’s on Great North Rd, towards Bond St.
“The victim doesn’t remember anything between the time she was in Ponsonby, until the time she woke up in Riverhead.
“That silver grey car . . . is seen driving into the quarry at 1.46am.
“Because we have the victim on CCTV at 1.15am in Great North Rd, we are now trawling CCTV footage for sightings of that car in the Great North Rd area in the next few minutes.”
Police are also appealing to anyone who may have seen the victim walking along Great North Rd at about 1.15am.
“She was wearing a sleeveless shift dress in a multi-coloured pattern and was [ walking] by herself . . . along Great North Rd,” said Libby.
He said the victim was “recovering from her injuries and her ordeal”.
Anyone with information can call the inquiry team on 0800 605 506 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.