It’s getting harder for writers in Canada to make a living at their craft.

Writers’ incomes continue to fall with the majority earning an income from their publications that is below the poverty line, according to findings released by the Writers’ Union of Canada from a survey of its members and other writers this spring.

The average writer earns just $12,879 from writing, the survey found, while the median income is less than $5,000. For 81 per cent of those who responded, their income from writing actually falls below the poverty line (which in Ontario was just under $20,000 in 2011). The organization has more than 2,000 members; 947 writers participated in the survey.

Taking inflation into account, writers are making 27 per cent less than they were in 1998, the survey says.

Interestingly, the survey breaks down sources of writing income, noting that 45 per cent comes from royalties, a total of about 5 per cent from grants, other types of writing, including corporate, financial and government, or freelance articles for newspapers and magazines. Self-published titles are the third largest source of income overall, at 8 per cent.

To be a member of the Writers’ Union, writers must have had at least one book published by a trade or university press or the equivalent in another medium.

Gender inequality found in other industries is also found here, with women making a staggering 45 per cent less overall than their male counterparts. Of the writers who participated in the survey, 68 per cent were women.

The findings weren’t surprising. As previously reported in the Star, writers’ incomes have been eroding thanks to a variety of factors, including downward pressure on royalties, tightening of grant money, taxation of grants and copyright income.

In Canada, publishing is a $2-billion industry.