Also in the UK, the influential Oxford Literary Festival has just reversed its earlier refusal to pay authors at its events. The festival now tells the Bookseller it will pay an author £150 (US $187) to speak at its festival starting in 2017.
As you might recall, author Philip Pullman resigned as the festival’s patron to protest its practice of not paying authors. (See our Jan. 2016 item.) He said then, “It seems contradictory to me to lay on lavish ‘black tie dinners’ and at the same time claim that [the Oxford festival] can’t afford to pay speakers.”
Festival organizers say they managed to find the funds to pay author-speakers by “rebalancing budgets”—and that they have done this “recognizing the strength of feeling” on the matter.
Bottom line: What this step—likely to be adopted by other festivals—helps undermine is the old dodge of paying authors with exposure. The change of heart at Oxford Literary Festival is good news when taken as part of an industry-wide awakening to authors’ rights and needs. And how it has come about reminds us that public embarrassment and pressure—that “strength of feeling” Oxford is citing—can be effective.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
