Struggling authors need money apparently.
Unlike the performing arts, publishing has always been a largely commercial sector that has had to square its own circles. This is reflected in the fact that it gets only 7% of the funding cake handed out by the Arts Council, compared with 23% to theatre and 11% to dance.
Most of that money has gone to support publishers who produce poetry and literature in translation, which have never been able to pay their way. So there will be blood on the carpet if existing resources are shifted to support literary novelists.
There will be those who argue that this just shows that literary fiction is a hangover from the past, and the poor dears should knuckle down and resign themselves to writing what people actually want to read.
Well, why not indeed? There shouldn’t be any taxpayer money supporting the arts. Not one single penny. If people want it, they will pay for it. If there aren’t enough that want to do that, well, too bad. Very few people make a living as a novelist. I should know as I’m currently working on my second novel and would be begging on the streets if I wanted to live off the fruits of my writing labours. When Leggy publishes it, I might make a few quid in royalties and like many other writers in my position, I won’t be giving up the day job. People write because they want to, because they have something to say. Every so often, one of us hits the big time. But they are a rarity. It has always been thus. It is not an excuse for more money from other people who do not want to read our work.
And, despite being universally mocked by the intelligentsia, Dan Browne did alright because he did, indeed, write what people want to read. Just a thought…
Funding for the “Arts” is simply a way of ensuring the survival of those who produce nothing of interest to the public at large but who are the darlings of the (non-paying) left. It is our money that is going to be wasted. Look at authors who, whilst not producing anything intellectually challenging, actually entertain their readers. The success of Lee Child with his larger-than-life character Jack Reacher is what happens when a lot of people like what has been written. Those who create unread drivel should be allowed to expire in their respctive garrets.