Authors 'desperately' need funds as hundreds apply for SoA hardship grants

The Society of Authors says writers still “desperately” need funds to cover the pandemic's impact on their income, with 1,170 applying for hardship grants in 2020 and another 250 submitting applications so far this year.

Originally set up in 1963, the Author Contingency Fund has grown over the years through donations from authors and the Society of Authors' supporters. The hardship grants are intended to cover a range of purposes, including assisting with lost income, covering illness, paying for training courses and helping with one-off expenses.

The society revamped the fund during the pandemic to accommodate creatives who were not eligible for government schemes, which accounted for more than 70% of its members. It received donations from contributors including the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society, Creative Scotland, the Royal Literary Fund, the T S Eliot Foundation and Amazon UK, raising £1.3m for the fund.

In total, 1,170 applications were assessed in 2020, and £1.3m was distributed in grants to 894 authors, illustrators, translators, scriptwriters, poets, comedians and others. Some 76% of applications were successful and the average grant was £1,441. The majority of successful applications came from British writers aged 30 to 39.

The fund is still open and Society of Authors chief executive Nicola Solomon told The Bookseller the need "desperately continues", with 216 applicants receiving funding so far this year.

She said: "Authors, especially poets and children’s writers, are dependent on school visits and personal appearances—and these will not get back to normal for a long time. The shape of the market has changed, to the benefit of top sellers and celebrities, and to the detriment of the midlist and emerging authors. The fund is still needed.

"We have already received over 250 applications this year and have paid out £264,000 to 216 applicants, an average grant of £1,199. We continue to receive around 30 applications a month. We have received very generous donations from our supporters to fund this, but we envisage the need continuing and welcome any help, however small, from the publishing industry."

Despite live events getting the go-ahead and publishers tentatively organising hybrid book campaigns, some authors are not confident money-earning opportunities will return in full force for a while.

Philip Womack, an author and member of the SoA, said: "I had thought that school events and so forth would be picking up by now, but they simply are not, for many reasons. I have one booked in for June, but only tenuously. It's now much harder even to find the right person to talk to, as the admin levels have been increased. Children's authors all missed out on World Book Week again—a week that for many provides a serious boost to incomes. Online events were sparse, and tend to be paid at a lower rate.

"From anecdotal evidence, over a fairly wide range of authors, most would expect to earn £2,000-plus in that week. Many earned £120 or less. I foresee that the situation will not improve until the second term of the next academic year, as it takes a while to organise events etc, so the continued existence of the fund is vital."

Author Rob Young, who received a grant last year, said: "It is no exaggeration to say that this grant helped me, and my family, to survive. Writing is, was and always will be a precarious profession but these are remarkable times. I have been a full-time writer for 22 years and the risk of losing all I’ve worked for is a raw and tangible thing."

Aside from the grants, Solomon said the SoA was continuing to put pressure on the government over a range of issues to safeguard author income. She said: "We continue to lobby government for fair copyright laws and better treatment of creative freelancers, We also continue to press for authors to be fairly remunerated with higher advances and a better share of profits. And we all need to work together to ensure that authors are adequately remunerated, otherwise talk of diversifying the industry can never come to fruition."