Authors don't even make minimum wage.

Interesting datum popped up today. It seems that according to a study in Britain, most authors earn less than minimum wage.

The research, commissioned by The Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society, found the top 5 per cent of writers earned close to half of all the income received by professional authors in 2013. The median income for professional writers is just £10,432, less than the minimum wage. Technical and academic writers are among the worst paid.
The report, compiled by Queen Mary, University of London, concluded: "There is a high concentration of earnings in a handful of successful writers whereas most do not earn much at all."

Well, what about the rest of them then?

The bottom half of writers – those who received less than £10,432 in 2013 – earned just 7 per cent of total earnings between them. "It appears that writing is a profession where only a handful of successful authors make a good living while most do not," the report said.

Ok, why is that? Publishers are sticking with the Big Names, apparently. The report doesn't say so, but I expect the profit margins publishers used to enjoy have been eroded away by inflation, taxation and middlemen like Amazon.com.

Then there is the other thing, wherein the "professional organizations" of various literary genres have been taken over by raving Leftists. The one that simply LEAPS to mind is of course the SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. As well, over the last 30 years the awards given for Science Fiction and Fantasy such as the Nebula Awards, the Hugo Awards etc. have uniformly rewarded dreadful message fiction over good stories that have succeeded in the marketplace. Awards go every year to books and stories which most people have never heard of, much less read.

When you reward a behavior, you get more of it.

When you get enough "challenging" stories out there with lame characters who make stupid choices and bad things happen every single time... people stop reading. And authors stop making money.

Pretty simple.

The Phantom

Update: Hi Greg! (Greg is a troll from John Scalzi's blog who is too chickenshit to post here.) For your information and edification old son,  I, The Ineffable Phantom, wrote this post. In its entirety.

Vox Day did not write this, nor did he have any input. Nor does he know who I am, nor would he care a damn if he did, I'm sure. I have never read anything by Vox Day, nor have I ever linked to his blog, nor have I even seen his blog that I recall.

Also on a more personal note, should we ever meet in Real Life I will be sure to thank you for labeling me a racist in the time honored way of my People. Who are the Scots.