Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you for this opportunity to present in front of the committee.
My name is Patricia Robertson. I'm a writer of short fiction, novels, poetry, essays, and literary journalism. I've published two books and co-edited Writing North: An Anthology of Contemporary Yukon Writers. I hold an M.A. in creative writing and I've taught creative writing at the university level for over 30 years in Vancouver, B.C.; Whitehorse, Yukon; and now in Winnipeg. I've held writer-in-residence positions across the country in libraries and universities in B.C., Ontario, and Manitoba.
I'm also a professional editor, primarily in non-fiction and educational materials, and I've worked with a number of Canadian publishers and organizations. I've been a member of the Writers' Union of Canada, and I served two years on its governing council.
I'd like to sketch a brief portrait of my income as a writer—that is, writing-related income, excluding teaching and freelance editing.
Last year my writing-related income totalled $10,353. I was fortunate to receive $10,000 of that total from a Manitoba arts grant. I also received a grand total of $40 in book royalties and approximately $250 from the public lending right fund, administered by the Canada Council. Finally, I received $63 from Access Copyright, the agency that disburses funds received under the copyright tariffs.
A few years ago, before the educational sector decided on their own interpretation of “fair dealing” under the Copyright Act, I received about $500 a year, so you can see there's been a huge drop. I'm now receiving about 13% of what I used to receive per year.
My husband is also a writer. He is a poet with four published books. Together, we used to receive about $1,100 per year from Access Copyright. We now, together, receive about $100 per year as payment for the reproduction of our work. That's a drop of about 90%.
These amounts may sound very small to the committee. I can assure you that as two independent self-employed writers, my husband and I, for us $1,100 per year is a significant amount. The loss of that income is painful, and it's particularly painful to be exploited by a sector that ought to understand the need to fairly compensate Canadian writers who, after all, provide the content that the educational sector uses.
I work in the educational sector as a university instructor, and I want to be able to use a wide variety of materials in the courses I teach. I also want to be sure that the creators of those works are compensated for the use of their work in a course pack. Like many instructors, I rely on a company called Canadian Scholars to assemble the materials I select, verify their copyright status, and arrange for payment to the authors. I'm now told that Canadian Scholars is also more and more relying on the educational sector's interpretation of the Copyright Act and is therefore not compensating authors.
To be absolutely clear about what writers earn from their publishers and to clear up any misconceptions, most of us are not J.K. Rowling, or even Margaret Atwood, for that matter. A bestseller in Canada is about 2,000 copies. I'm talking about fiction now. The author's portion of that, assuming that the book is priced at $30, is 10% of net, or $1.80. That's a total of $3,600 for what may have been three or four years of work.
That's a best-case scenario. Most books are not bestsellers, and some of those 2,000 copies are promotional and author copies or damaged. Those 2,000 copies may take years to sell. Meanwhile, the author is working on the next book, subsidizing it through whatever freelance work or day job they can.
I'd like to finish by pointing out that large corporations, including universities, take all possible steps to protect their own intellectual property, yet apparently Canadian writers, who provide the imaginative and creative work that Canadian students read, are expected to essentially underwrite the educational sector for free.
When school boards are buying one copy of a book and photocopying a classroom set with no compensation to the writer whatsoever, there is something deeply wrong with the support of the cultural sector in this country.
Thank you.