MORE than two thirds of writers earn less than £10,000 a year, a major new survey has found.
A report by the Royal Society of Literature, called A Room of My Own, found that only 10% of writers can support themselves through writing alone.
It has also found that "pay gaps in relation to social class identity, gender identity, ethnicity and geographic region are greater in a writing career than in employment outside it."
The report comes out 90 years after Virginia Woolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own.
It presents findings from a survey of over 2,000 writers aged 16 and over across the UK, including Scotland.
Writers told the survey that the most significant kinds of support were a dedicated space to work - a room of their own - peer support, emotional support, and then financial support.
The RSL said: "The vast majority of writers do not earn the income that Virginia Woolf argued a writer needs – £500 a year, equivalent to just over £30,000 in 2019.
"The majority of writer respondents earned below £10,000 from their writing in 2018."
Of those surveyed, 5% earned more than £30,000 in 2018.
However, the report found that 67% of writers earned £10,000 or less.
A quarter of the respondents identified as working class, but they make up only 11% of the highest earners from writing (earning over £30,000 from writing in 2018)
13% of all respondents identified as being from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, but are only 9% of the highest earners from writing
Of those who answered the survey, 72% identified as female, and they made up 57% of the highest earners from writing.
In comparison, respondents identifying as male made up 25% of overall respondents but 41% of those with the highest incomes from writing
66% of the highest earners lived in London or the South of England.
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