ALCS launches the Write Share campaign
The campaign promotes solutions to address challenges in the creative industries and ensure writers are fairly compensated wherever their works are used.
The Write Share was launched last night at the All Party Writers Group spring reception at the House of Commons.
Writers provide immense social, cultural and economic value, with the creative industries valued at £125billion each year. However, research on writers’ earnings over the past 15 years reveals a consistent downward trend with earnings for writers falling by more than 40%, putting median annual earnings for a professional writer at just £7,000 per annum.
The Write Share campaign promotes several initiatives designed to ensure writers receive their fair share when their works are used in the digital and online world. We urge the Government to support the pursuit of these policy initiatives, which will protect writers’ livelihoods and support our world-beating creative sector.
The initiatives are:
The Smart Fund, which asks manufacturers to pay creators a small fraction of the revenue from sales of electronic devices.
AuthorSHARE, which pays writers royalties on the sale of their used books bought from online retailers.
News content licensing, which would generate revenues for journalists, photographers and other visual contributors when their content is used on 3rd-party platforms.
Generative artificial intelligence licensing, which would allow creators to be compensated when their works are used in AI systems.
Audiovisual content remuneration, which would remunerate creators for the added value that their works generate for video sharing platforms.
The event was hosted by Chair of the All Party Writers Group, Giles Watling MP. He said: “I’m horrified sometimes about the average earnings of a writer… What this event is doing is putting the concerns of writers in front of parliamentarians, to make sure that you are not overlooked in any way.”
The Shadow Minister for Creative Industries and Digital, Sir Chris Bryant MP said: “One in 14 people in the UK work in the creative industries. I desperately want to grow that because I want to grow the British economy, and the part of the economy that’s growing is the creative industries and writers are absolutely essential to that process. I want the creative industries to flourish as much as much as they can, because without them, we simply aren’t Great Britian.”
The event was closed by ALCS Chair Tom Chatfield, who said: “The idea of the Write Share is very simple. It’s to rebalance the system so that writers and creators get their share… That they are acknowledged, that they are sustained. So for that any young person in this country with ideas and words to share, can be recognised and remunerated for that.”
You can learn more about the campaign at TheWriteShare.co.uk
