Book festivals are worth far more than fees | Claire Armitstead

Writers, championed by Philip Pullman, may object to attending literary gatherings for free. But the events help to sustain a reading culturePhilip Pullman became cheerleader for a growing band of refuseniks last week when he resigned as president of the Oxford literary festival because it didn’t pay speakers. Thirty more writers immediately picked up the chant, with a letter to the trade journal the Bookseller calling for all authors and publishers to boycott festivals that expected writers to appear for free.With a 2014 survey reporting that the median income for authors is now just £11,000, these are undoubtedly lean times, and it’s understandable that emotions are running high. But, according to recent figures, the earnings gap has also widened dramatically between the top 1% and the rest – which translates, in festival terms, into the sort of writers who audiences will queue up to hear, and those for whom they won’t. Related: Book festival speakers’ pay is not an ‘additional cost’ | Letters Related: Philip Pullman resigns as Oxford literary festival patron over lack of pay for authors Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2016-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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