Canelo / Arts Council England

Canelo / Arts Council England | 

42

   

Literature in the 21st Century: Understanding Models of Support for Literary Fiction

of Kit de Waal, ‘The idea of a career in writing is really, really difficult.’ 

It’s too simplistic to say this is all the result of avaricious publishers; 

publishers naturally have something to do with it, but they are facing 

pressures of their own and, as more and more writers emerge, the 

market does its own work in depressing advances. 

Yet the dream outlined at the beginning of this section is now severely 

challenged. If you want to be on the inside of those networks and 

live in London, a £13,000 advance, spread over several years of work, 

won’t cut the mustard. Writers must, for better or worse, take on more 

financial risk in order to write.