Interesting numbers from NEA study, looking at the arts in the US economic picture. How are writers doing? Here are the stats:
There are 2.1 million artists in the US (1.4% of the total workforce, 6.9% of the professional workforce), and a little over 9% of artists (189,000) are writers/authors.
The average annual income of professional authors during 2005-09 was $44,792. (I'd be interested to see how that breaks down by genre. I think this reflects the average of Tess Gerritsen, Dan Brown and 8,687 bloggers who made fifty-three bucks each.)
84% of authors have a BA or higher.
56% of authors are women, average age 44.
While women artists in general make 81 cents for every dollar made by male artists, the income of women authors is almost equal to the income of male authors.
Only 13% of writers and authors are non-white and/or Hispanic, compared with 32% of the total workforce.
Oregon and Vermont have 20% more artists than other states, with a particularly strong population of writers and authors.
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