Canelo / Arts Council England

Canelo / Arts Council England | 
45

Literature in the 21st Century: Understanding Models of Support for Literary Fiction
Journalism and freelance writing:
Always a perennial of writers, the 
overall scenario has meant that writers more and more need to write 
as copywriters or journalists. However, almost all the writers we heard 
from thought this was getting more difficult. Rates of pay were going 
down, driven by more and more people going after fewer slots and 
the willingness of many to write at extremely low costs or for free, 
in the name of gaining exposure or building a portfolio. As mentioned 
previously, outlets for book reviewing are not increasing and nor is the 
pay for doing so. Only those with strong connections at the national 
newspapers and most prestigious publications would earn anything 
like a sustainable income from this work. 
Lecturing and Creative Writing courses:
In 1970, when it opened, 
the UEA Creative Writing MA was the first in the country. Since then 
it has produced an extraordinary roster of successful writers including 
three Booker Prize winners and six Costa Award winners. Now, 
however, it is far from alone. A huge number of universities offer not 
just MAs in creative writing but undergraduate courses and PhDs as 
well. The model has spread to the commercial world with, for example, 
both Faber & Faber and literary agency Curtis Brown also setting 
up their own creative writing courses. This has necessitated a large 
increase in the need for people to teach such courses and so offers a 
new chance of employment to literary writers. Given there are dozens 
and dozens of courses from Falmouth to Lancaster, and each requires 
a range of lecturers, this is a substantial and growing source of reliable 
income across the board for writers. Indeed even PhDs offer a system 
of support for literary writers: one of our interviewees said they had 
heard of scholarships worth up to £60,000 in total for Creative Writing 
PhDs although spread out over a few years. While such courses feel 
close to a writer and may even feed into their work, they also take up a 
large amount of time.