WRITERS’ VOICE
Second-hand royalties
Martin Reed of the SoA looks at making the most of your writing income with ‘secondary use’ earnings
Martin Reed
Ssa trade union we often talk about the challenges faced by writers as they try to make writing pay.
It is well known that in addition to direct income from writing, most also rely on money from events and readings, mentoring, lecturing, grants and day jobs. This is not genre specific. No matter what you write, it is rare to be able to earn a living from books alone.
But less well known are the opportunities you will have throughout your career to receive payments from secondary uses (excuse the jargon) of your work.
This year, we helped create Author SHARE, a new secondary use scheme to add to writers’ income portfolios, so it seems an apt time to mention the new and existing opportunities available.