More than half of established writers in France earn less than the minimum wage

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

French writers have never felt more badly paid, undervalued or under pressure, according to a new survey that shows more than half of established authors earn less than the minimum wage.

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Many are so depressed by the state of the book industry that they are considering giving up altogether, according to a new report that canvassed more than 100,000 authors of fiction and non-fiction.

“Authors have a high social status but almost empty bank accounts,” said Marie Sellier, president of the SDGL, one of the five writers’ and publishing groups behind the study.

Like their counterparts in the US and the UK, French writers have seen their incomes plummet since the 1990s, the report found.

More than a third of even the highest-earning authors had to have another job to make ends meet, mostly as teachers, it said.

Established writers with years of relative success behind them struggled to make a living, with their median annual earnings of €17,600 ($19,800), less than three-quarters of national average.

The most staggering statistic of all in the report, which was backed by the ministry of culture, is that six out of 10 published writers make less than €1,500 a year.

Despite French publishing growing for the first time for five years, authors remained deeply pessimistic about their prospects.

The survey of writers as well as poets, illustrators and translators found they were they “generally worried, disenchanted and discouraged”.

“Many were asking themselves whether they should diversify into other work or stop altogether,” it concluded.

Although exact comparisons are difficult to make, French writers appear to be still doing better than their British or American equivalents.

Established British authors tend not to make even half the industrial wage, with latest data showing them averaging £11,000 (€14,000) a year.

Nor has the boom in self-publishing and e-books made much difference to writers’ often miserable earnings, according to the Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society.

An online US survey last year by Digital Book World made even grimmer reading, finding a third of published authors earned less than $500 a year from their writing.