About us
What is ‘The Write Share’?
The Write Share is a campaign from the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) to address industry-wide challenges faced by writers and promote solutions to support our world-class talent and protect the future of the UK’s creative industries.
Writers contribute substantially to our social and cultural life, providing entertainment, education and reliable journalism, making a major contribution across our creative industries that are valued at £125bn. However, research on writers’ earnings over the past 15 years reveal 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.
This unsustainably low pay not only discourages existing writers but creates barriers to new entrants, especially those from underrepresented communities. At the same time, the online and platform economy has generated billions in revenues for a small number of dominant players. A recent report from the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee highlights the problem:
As new means of consuming creative content have become the norm, creators across the sector have experienced persistent declines in their royalties and residuals… Royalties have been depressed by digital distribution in the UK, which pays out less to creators (if at all) compared to other modes of distribution.
The Write Share campaign led by ALCS, a not-for-profit organisation representing more than 120,000 writers in the UK and internationally, promotes several initiatives designed to ensure writers receive their fair share when their works are used in the digital and online world.
The Write Share covers different writing genres including publishing, scriptwriting and journalism and this site will be a hub for new research, data and information on writers, their rights and remuneration in the online environment.
Our ask of Government is simple: support us in pursuing the voluntary initiatives outlined in this campaign, which are designed to ensure that writers are fairly paid for their work and can maintain their crucial and irreplaceable contribution to the UK’s creative industries.
