Your anonymous correspondent who earned £1,500 for writing two books over a 10-year period (Letters, 16 January) deserves to join the elite of ill-used scribblers, alongside George Gissing and his fictional antihero Edwin Reardon (whose name was stolen for the radio sitcom I created with the late Andrew Nickolds). Gissing sold his novel New Grub Street to the publishers Smith Elder for £150 in 1891 while his alter ego, Reardon, received £75 for his.
Gissing is often characterised as the archetypal impoverished author, but £150 would have paid three years’ rent on his Marylebone flat. He could probably have built himself a house. Conditions for many freelance writers are worse now, and we are sometimes asked by salaried editors to work for nothing at all.
Christopher Douglas
London
• I sold my first story to Jackie magazine in 1973 and started to call myself a writer. Today, I’m still in my garret slaving over the keys and I’ve earned £19,801 from selling 161 short stories and one novella. But now I rely on the odd letter in the Guardian to fuel my writing aspirations.
Sam White
Lewes, East Sussex
• Re Simon Jenkins’ article (Mary Berry, and now Prue Leith. Retiring in your 80s is the new 60s, 23 January), I retired from teaching at 59, then tutored for three years before finally pursuing a post-retirement career which has no end date – as a novelist. I make no money at all from my books (eight self-published and currently working on the ninth), but I’m on the committee of a book festival, lead book groups and writing groups, and attend book events across Scotland as both reader and writer. I took my granny’s advice to do something worthwhile with a pension that would let me follow my dreams afterwards.
Julie Adams
Arbroath, Angus
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
