Don’t give up your day job
This story is from the left wing Guardian and it hits the nail on the head.
According to new research by Macquarie University, the Australia Council and the Copyright Agency, the average annual income from practising as an author is only $18,200.
Many authors would revel in earning that much. Most pull about $4000-$5000 with every book.
More than two-fifths of authors rely on their partner’s income, and two-fifths rely on a day job unrelated to their writing.
Miles Franklin winner Jennifer Down was named the Sydney Morning Herald’s young novelist of the year consecutively in 2017 and 2018. At the time, she was working as an in-house copywriter for an Australian skincare company, being paid less than $50,000.
“I was living in a five-person share house, and I could barely pay my bills.”
“It is surreal,” she says. “Outside of work, my writing is really respected. I had this modest critical acclaim coming in. Then at work, I’m having social media copy corrected by a person who doesn’t understand what subordinate clauses are and hasn’t read a book in 10 years.”
It’s curious that creative writing courses don’t highlight this fact. They flog the dream, not the reality. They exist so mediocre published writers can earn a wage by teaching students how to be mediocre.
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