Philippa Dowding's Blog - Posts Tagged "sean-michaels"
After the Giller, a few thoughts on making a living as a writer
There's been a lot of talk in the press lately about how much the average Canadian author earns: @$10,000 a year, apparently.
It's not much, and kudos to Giller winner Sean Michaels for pointing out to Rick Mercer, the host of the Gala evening, that he will likely live on his winnings for the next ten years (which for the math-challenged among us, works out to yep, $10,000 a year).
$10,000 a year is likely not far off the reality, and for many writers that's probably not a bad year. It's not a lot of money, to be sure, but the relatively low pay isn't the point. Art will out, and I don't think any of the authors I know would stop writing based on the pay alone.
Here's a longer blog post which explains why: http://phdowding.blogspot.ca/2014/11/...
It's not much, and kudos to Giller winner Sean Michaels for pointing out to Rick Mercer, the host of the Gala evening, that he will likely live on his winnings for the next ten years (which for the math-challenged among us, works out to yep, $10,000 a year).
$10,000 a year is likely not far off the reality, and for many writers that's probably not a bad year. It's not a lot of money, to be sure, but the relatively low pay isn't the point. Art will out, and I don't think any of the authors I know would stop writing based on the pay alone.
Here's a longer blog post which explains why: http://phdowding.blogspot.ca/2014/11/...
