Canelo / Arts Council England

Canelo / Arts Council England | 
42

Literature in the 21st Century: Understanding Models of Support for Literary Fiction
of Kit de Waal, ‘The idea of a career in writing is really, really difficult.’ 
It’s too simplistic to say this is all the result of avaricious publishers; 
publishers naturally have something to do with it, but they are facing 
pressures of their own and, as more and more writers emerge, the 
market does its own work in depressing advances. 
Yet the dream outlined at the beginning of this section is now severely 
challenged. If you want to be on the inside of those networks and 
live in London, a £13,000 advance, spread over several years of work, 
won’t cut the mustard. Writers must, for better or worse, take on more 
financial risk in order to write. 
2. Other Commercial Models 
The picture of advances suggest that the ideal of a career as a full-
time writer is harder than ever. We have returned to the New Grub 
Street of George Gissing, where writers have little choice but to live 
in genteel(ish) poverty. However, even if advances have fallen writers 
have other options – some within writing itself, some that involve other 
sources of income. 
Royalties: 
While dependent on advances, royalties are still separate. We 
can roughly tell what is happening by triangulating what we have already 
established. Sales in print are falling, which means such royalties are 
as well. Ebooks have been rising (until circa 2015), which means ebook 
royalties, typically 25% of net receipts at most publishers, will have 
risen as well. If advances are falling, it means that royalties are more 
likely to be paid as advances earn out quicker – assuming that is the 
books are selling enough. Given the polarisation in the market though, 
this will still not apply to many books as the top books are taking their 
disproportionately large share of sales. Moreover, high discount clauses 
are routine – these mean publishers pay lower royalties when books are 
sold at high discount to the retailer. Such discounts are now standard 
and so in practice many writers see significant portions of their sales go 
through with such clauses applied. None of which makes for a happy 
picture for literary writing. They won’t have the full upside of ebook 
revenues, but they will have the downside of falling print. Royalty rates 
have not risen with publisher profitability. Royalties are an important 
source of income for writers, especially for those with big backlists and 
breakout successes. However,they are no panacea and are likely to be 
an aggregate worse position for literary writers (as opposed to genre 
writers) than a decade ago. While new publishers offer higher royalties, 
there is an increasing clamour for change in the author and agent 
community. 
Foreign rights:
This is a real positive. Two areas in particular stand 
out. The UK has an excellent track record in selling translation rights 

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