The collective noun for a bunch of authors? An anthology? A sheaf? Or maybe “a complaint”, given how much they’ve been moaning lately, expressing dismay at figures suggesting that the median earnings of a professional author are only £10,437 a year; encouraging the boycotting of literary festivals that don’t pay author fees; and worrying out loud that publishers aren’t offering a fair share of profits.
As the author of a couple of books myself, and a lifelong fan of whingeing, I have sympathy for the complainers. If I had to rely on my earnings from books I’d be living on Pot Noodles. As a business journalist, though, who has a foot in both camps, curating the forthcoming Birmingham Literature Festival (tickets for my events with