Donal Ryan clarifies comments about financial struggle

Irish writer Donal Ryan has clarified his comments about his author earnings, after being forced to return to his civil service day-job in order to pay the mortgage despite the acclaim for his books.

The Spinning Heart author sparked a social media outcry after revealing to last week’s edition of the Irish Sunday Independent that he would join the Workplace Relations Commission. The interview was cited by the Guardian on Tuesday (7th February). 

Ryan revealed to the Irish Sunday Independent that his earnings amounted to about 40 cents [in euros] per copy sold. He had worked at the National Employment Rights Authority until April 2014, when he became a full-time writer. He said: “You need to have something else on the go. You could take a chance and scrape a living through bursaries and writing books, but I’d get too stressed out. It just isn’t worth it. I have two kids in school and I have a mortgage to pay. I am lucky though. I loved the civil service. It was a job that I was good at and that I found fulfilling and challenging and I had an opportunity to help people and to make a little difference in the world."

There was dismay on Twitter that the highly respected novelist felt the need to return to his day-job. Author and journalist Hannah Beckerman ‏‪tweeted: “When someone as talented as Donal Ryan can't make a living as a writer, publishers need to ask wtf they're doing.” The Story House retreat, based in Ireland, also lamented the news and said: “Our system for encouraging and rewarding artists is completely broken. Donal Ryan's integrity as a writer & a human being is inspirational.”

However Ryan has now put out a statement through his publisher, Transworld, a division of Penguin Random House (PRH), which stressed he is “very happy to have recently made another contract with them for three new books” and the recent reports about his earnings only refer to his previous contract with the Lilliput Press. He said: "I want to clarify that the comments in recent press reports about my earnings refer only to my first contract. I moved to PRH for all of my publishing in 2015 and am very happy to have recently made another contract with them for three new books. Despite this, as anyone who works in the creative arts knows, long-term financial security can never be absolutely guaranteed which is why I have taken the decision to combine my two careers, those of author and civil servant."

The debate over author earnings looks set to continue. The Irish Times has also followed up on Ryan’s return to the Irish civil service in an article, ‘The €500 a year career: do Irish writers get paid enough?’ The newspaper is collaberating with Words Ireland, an umbrella body for writers and publishers, exploring the issue of writers can make a living.

Ryan's first two novels were been chart-topping bestsellers in Ireland; his debut, The Spinning Heart, won the Guardian First Book Award and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Last month The Bookseller’s guest reviewer Katy Guest selected his third novel All We Shall Know for April 2017’s paperback of the month and said “it deserves to become a classic far beyond Ireland and the UK”.