“More professionalisation, but with more precariousness”, the president of the Catalan Language Writers’ Association, Sebastià Portell, summarized the study on the professional situation of writers and translators, Escriure en català 2023, which was presented this Wednesday at the Association of Journalists of Catalonia, which was organized by the company Aplica, and in which 38.8% of its 1,725 ??members participated.
On the one hand, Portell has mentioned the fact that 22% of respondents are dedicated exclusively to literature, although only 25% of authors receive more than 15% of annual income from literature, and even those who receive more than 30% of income from literature are only 14.3%. This, according to the president of the AELC, shows that “the dedication to literature does not match the income that is perceived”, a fact that he sees with great “concern”. Portell has specified that literary activities currently include, in addition to copyright, collaborations in the media, participation in activities such as book clubs, conferences, or also specifically literary courses, although which also wanted to indicate that up to 21% of authors do not get paid for participating in literary events and festivals.
The AELC is about to approve precisely a code of good practices on literary activities, which according to Portell “may seem like a toast to the sun, but they work”, and he gives an example of the impact that the circular of good practices had practices on literary awards. In any case, Portell explained that “the objective as an association is to work so that all those who want to dedicate themselves to the profession in Catalan can do so, but we are very far from achieving this”, and he also explained that although 66.8% of respondents have this aspiration, there are also quite a few writers or translators who “have made the political and conscious decision not to depend on the profession of writing and translation, which is a valid option”.
Another highlight, according to Portell, is that although 63% of members always or almost always sign a contract to publish, there are 8% of authors surveyed who have never signed one.
The study also focuses on aspects that allow a better understanding of the profile of writers and translators in Catalan, such as discovering that the short story is the genre that has been worked on the most (62.4%), followed by the novel ( 56.1%) and poetry (53.1%).
The increase in the internationalization of Catalan literature is also noteworthy, as 41.6% of the authors have been translated into another language, and of these, 81.3% into Spanish, and around 30 % in English or French.
Portell has assured that from now on every four years a study of these characteristics will be carried out to be able to see the evolution with the previous ones, which were carried out in 2007 and 2014.
The president of the AELC has not been able to avoid the questions about the non-payments of the Enciclopédia Group, about which he explained that a few months ago there were fifteen affected people who managed to reduce it to three, but that “in the last few weeks we have a dozen other authors, who have joined for a requirement, so we are very close to taking legal measures”.