We live in a world as hyper-capitalist as any point in history, with inequality approaching the extremes of Dickensian England circa 1850. Yet, consumers increasingly expect music, films and books to come free.
This is the problem faced by writers: that there is a habit, or even a culture, of refusing to pay for art in a society where everything costs more.
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Iggy Pop, in a speech delivered at the BBC entitled ‘Free Music in a Capitalist Society’, noted that he can’t make a 
living from his music anymore. Let that sink in for a moment. The guy who did Candy, The Passenger, Real Wild Child, Lust for Life, Louie Louie, and all the rest; a member of the rock and roll hall of fame, can’t make a living off royalties from his music. He says that music is: “An industry that is mainly pirate, so no-one can collect shit.”
He goes on to talk about bootlegging in the 70s, and how he used to love seeing his music bootlegged, partly because the people doing it were so inventive. He’s not so fond of it anymore:
“Now everybody is a bootlegger, and it ain’t so cute as before. Everyone is stealing stuff, and saying: don’t try to force me to pay. That act of thieving will become a habit, and that’s bad for everything. We are exchanging the corporate rip-off for the public one. Aided by power nerds, kinda computer Putins.”
He makes the point several times that while once it was the venal music executives that screwed the artist; now it’s everyone. He also insists that he never got into art because of the money. His band, the Stooges, were a ‘communist collective’ that shared everything equally. Iggy Pop became an artist, he says, because it felt like freedom. However, “when it comes to art, money is an unimportant detail, it just happens to be a huge, unimportant detail.”
Music and books are different on this count, of course – piracy is far more of a problem in the music industry. But the struggle to make a living in the music industry, outlined by Iggy Pop, resonates with writers.
I’ve never cared about being rich, or anything close to it. So, like many writers, discussing the money side of this caper feels almost unseemly.
But there’s something worse than being unseemly: not having food on the table. No money for rent. That’s worse. Being so poor as to be unable to write at all – that’s the worst possible outcome.
If Iggy Pop can’t make a living, what, then, are chances for the aspiring artists and up-and-coming writers? Slim, is the answer, and getting slimmer every day.
Regular readers of this website will know this is an issue I’ve discussed before, but let’s look at the numbers. The facts aren’t pretty: in the UK, the median income for professional authors has fallen 30% over the previous decade to around 13,000 pounds (AUD 27,000), the average for Canadian authors is CAD 20,000 (AUD 21,000), and the average for Australian authors is AUD 13,000. We’re not talking about hobbyists here; we’re talking about people who consider themselves professional writers.
Every year these numbers go down, every year the promised boon of e-books fails to materialize. Yes, there are new ways of publishing and being read, and some of these make money, but this has barely made an impact on the generalised collapse in royalties, advances, and writing income.
The irony of all these discussions about diversity in fiction; broadening the tent, recognising new works from underrepresented groups is this: never in history has it been harder for poor, working class, and even middle class writers and artists to make a living. The modern world cuts an economic line right through the middle of society, and the 50% on the wrong side simply don’t have the resources (time, money, or sustenance) to write.
Worse still, there are individuals out there who think a refusal to pay a struggling, independent artist is progressive. Acolytes of that smug multi-millionaire 1%er and computer Putin, Cory Doctorow, seem to think piracy is an expression of freedom.
It isn’t. It’s an expression of disdain for the artist.
Of course, piracy isn’t the main problem, nor should we be intent on getting the law involved. As Iggy argues: “…prosecuting a college student for stealing a file is a lot liking sending someone to Australia for poaching his lordship’s rabbit.” (As an Australian of convict stock, I’m with him on this – though the people who run sites dedicated to book piracy: fuck ‘em. Charge those pricks).
Piracy is merely a symptom of something broader: our increasing unwillingness to pay for art. It’s that grindstone of miserly expectation on the part of the consumer, chipping away at the income of the struggling artist.
Yes, there are numerous other factors are driving down the price of books and the median wage of authors. Not the least of which is the fragmentation of the market. The white noise of a thousand slush piles and a million new novels published every year, just in the US alone. Cutting through that, being heard, is harder than ever. And yes, there are a lot of things going against the independent artist. Not all of them can be solved. I wouldn’t argue otherwise.
My argument here is over what we are willing to tolerate as authors or readers. I’m not interested in trying to regulate the Internet; my interest is in pushing back against the culture that says that stealing an e-book is ok. Pushing back against the cult of the free; against the cultural nihilism attendant on removing all value from art.
We’ll pay two dollars for bottled water, four dollars for coffee, five dollars for a Hallmark card, ten dollars for a pint of artisan beer; twenty-five dollars for a hipster breakfast served by a scowling, tattooed waiter; and fifty dollars a month for a fucking Foxtel subscription, but we’ll refuse to pay any money for a book, an album, or a movie.
Again, Iggy: “If I had to depend on what I actually get from sales, I’d be tending bar between sets. It’s becoming a patronage system.”
In Australia, 37% of authors rely on a partner to make ends meet, 15% rely on credit card debt, and another 10% rely on loans, usually from a family member. When I took a break from my profession to write, I had to rely on the patronage of my wife. It’s that simple. She earns enough to pay the bills and put food on the table, I write science fiction (as an aside: how awesome is feminism!?) (Note: I’m not a total bum – I do take care of our toddler).
For anyone who agrees with the principle that books have value, we need to embrace the normative belief that, well, books have value. We need to be as willing to pay for a book as we are a good cup of coffee. The Barista takes two minutes to make that coffee; the author can take a year – or five – to write a novel. Let’s respect that.
And while we’re at it, let’s disrespect those that say and do otherwise. That no, stealing books isn’t enlightened or progressive, it’s stealing books. That we understand the difference between lending a friend a book, and the piracy that allows 10,000 strangers to have it for free. We understand the difference between an author making an informed decision to do giveaways as a part of a marketing campaign, and the sort of reader who thinks everything must be given away.
You want free? There’s this socialist and revolutionary organisation that supports literature. It’s called a library. Get this: the library will lend you, the reader, a book for free, but the writer still gets paid. Woah.
Every time someone with a soy-milk latte in one hand and artisan cupcake in the other complains about having to purchase a book, give them an uppercut (verbal, of course). Every time you feel like buying some idiotic affectation of the capitalist age, buy a fucking book, instead.
This is what should be free: healthcare, basic education, libraries, water, cricket on the television over summer, withdrawing your own money out of an ATM (people will press YES to a 2 dollar fee to take their own money out of the bank, but blanch at buying a book or a song), and generic AIDS medication in Africa and Asia.
This is what should cost money: carbon pollution; articles written for the Huffington Post (pay the fucking writer, Arianna); books; art; and the use of selfie sticks (as in, those wankers should be fined).
Let’s finish with Iggy: “When you buy something from an artist, it’s kind of an anointing; you are giving that person love. We used to have the choice to give or withhold (our money). We don’t have that convention anymore.”
It’s a convention that doesn’t need to be lost. Conventions are shared practices: a principle a community agrees upon enforcing, together. So let’s enforce this motherfucker.
