Tonight:
5°c
Colm Toibin has revealed that the best thing about being a writer is: “The money. I never knew there would be money ... [writing] has nothing to do with enjoyment.”
It's very commendable of Toibin to come clean about his motives but the truth is that very few people earn much from writing. British publishers produce 200,000 titles a year. Of these, 190,000 sell fewer than 3,500 copies.
A recent survey of writers' incomes showed that the average income of all respondents was just £4,000. For professional writers it was £12,300.
The moral of the story — or rather, the statistics — is don't write unless you can afford it.
For every JK Rowling or Colm Toibin, thousands are toiling in what George Gissing called “the valley of the shadow of books”. When Hanif Kureishi told me he was paid around £150,000 for his latest novel, Something to Tell You, I thought: “You rich bastard.” But then he explained it took him five years to write. That doesn't work out at a very good annual return, especially when you take into account your agent's fee, tax and so on.
My grandfather, SPB Mais, wrote more than 200 books and was a household name in his day. Prolific production alas was no guarantee of riches. He wrote to keep the bailiffs at bay. I'll never forget when my mother told me how she once had to hand over the contents of her piggy bank to his creditors.
This revelation had as much impact on me as one of Hilaire Belloc's cautionary tales. I, for one, will think very carefully before I write a book for love — or money.
• Tomorrow is World Book Day. Most other countries mark the event on St George's Day but this year the British organisers want it to happen in term time to make the most of the opportunity to celebrate books and reading.
But do we really need a Book Day? Shouldn't reading be seen as a pleasure rather than just another school chore? Jonathan Guinness used to smoke only once a year on No Smoking Day. I am sorry to be churlish but I have the same feeling about World Book Day: tomorrow I will refuse to open a book. But I will be reading for the other 364 days of the year — every day should be Book Day.
• I can recommend the new Picasso exhibition at the National Gallery but not for the obvious reasons. There are a few fabulous paintings (some of which I had never clapped eyes on before) but the majority are over-familiar and reinforce the impression that the artist (below) was having a laugh and indulging his competitive ego.
I whisked around in under half an hour, which left me with time on my hands. So what did I do ? I went off to buy a new bed. Must have been something to do with all those reclining nudes. If you want to buy a bed, get in the mood with Pablo's blue period.
Reader views (2)
Yeah but this 5 years it took to write a book probably involved sloping around the house in dirty pyjamas and watching obscene amounts of TV? Or is that just me.......?
- Real, London, 04/03/2009 22:30
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Tell me all about it, Sebastian. I've been a professional writer for 35 years, churning out countless words for the business, consumer and technical press, newspaper features and columns, wire services, contract publications, websites,press releases, video scripts, brochures, newsletters, annual reports, speeches, and beer mats. Rich I am not. But I sure have had a breathtaking career, and I've travelled the world for almost four decades at no cost to myself. It beats working.
- Ken, Bexleyheath, 04/03/2009 13:23
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