Does It Pay to Be a Writer?
當作家好賺嗎？
By Concepción de León

Writing has never been a lucrative career choice, but a recent study by the Authors Guild, a professional organization for book writers, shows that it may not even be a livable one anymore.
寫作從來就不是個能賺大錢的職業選擇，而書籍作家的職業組織「作家協會」最近一項調查更顯示，它可能連賴以餬口的職業都算不上了。

According to the survey results, the median pay for full-time writers was $20,300 in 2017, and that number decreased to $6,080 when part-time writers were considered. The latter figure reflects a 42 percent drop since 2009, when the median was $10,500.
根據調查結果，2017年全職作家年收入的中位數是2萬300美元，而兼職作家的薪水中位數僅有6080美元。後者若與2009年的中位數1萬500美元相比，減少了42%。

These findings are the result of an expansive 2018 study of more than 5,000 published book authors, across genres and including both traditional and self-published writers.
這些發現是2018年一項大規模調查的結果，調查對象為5000多名出版書籍的作家，涵蓋各種作品類型，同時包括傳統出版和個人出版作者。

“In the 20th century, a good literary writer could earn a middle-class living just writing,” said Mary Rasenberger, executive director of the Authors Guild, citing William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and John Cheever. Now, most writers need to supplement their income with speaking engagements or teaching. Strictly book-related income – which is to say royalties and advances – are also down, almost 30 percent for full-time writers since 2009.
作家協會執行長瑪麗．拉森柏格說：「在20世紀，一位好的文學作家光靠寫作就能過著中產階級生活。」她舉威廉．福克納、恩尼斯特．海明威和約翰．齊弗為例。現在，多數作家要靠演講活動或教書來補充收入。純然來自書籍本身的收入－亦即版稅和預付金－也跟著下降，對全職作家而言自2009年以來少了30%。

Writing for magazines and newspapers was once a solid source of additional income for professional writers, but the decline in freelance journalism and pay has meant less opportunity for authors to write for pay. Many print publications, which offered the highest rate, have been shuttered altogether.
為雜誌和報紙撰稿，曾經是專業作家額外收入的穩固來源，但是隨著特約新聞需求與酬勞的下降，作家賺稿費的機會也變少了。許多過往提供最高金額的紙本出版公司，如今皆已關門大吉。

The decline in earnings is also largely because of Amazon’s lion’s share of the self-publishing, e-book and resale market, Ms. Rasenberger said. The conglomerate charges commission and marketing fees to publishers that Ms. Rasenberger said essentially prevent their books from being buried on the site.
拉森柏格說，作家收入減少同時也與亞馬遜在個人出版、電子書和二手書市場搶下最大塊地盤大有關係。她說，這家龐大企業向出版社收取手續費和行銷費用，基本上是為了防止他們的書在網站上被埋沒。

Small and independent publishers, which have fewer resources and bargaining power, have been particularly hard hit. Book publishing companies are passing these losses along to writers in the form of lower royalties and advances, and authors also lose out on income from books resold on the platform.
資源和談判本錢較少的小型及獨立出版社，承受的衝擊特別強烈。書籍出版公司將這些損失以較低版稅和預付金的形式轉嫁給作家，同時作家也因平台上銷售的二手書而損失收入。

In some ways, these changes are in line with a general shift toward a gig economy or “hustling,” in which people juggle an assortment of jobs to make up for the lack of a stable income.
就某方面而言，這些改變和朝向零工經濟或「窮忙」轉變的大勢一致，意指人們接多種工作，以因應沒有穩定收入的現實。

“Everyone thinks they can write, because everybody writes,” Ms. Rasenberger said, referring to the proliferation of casual texting, emailing and tweeting. But she distinguishes these from professional writers “who have been working on their craft and art of writing for years.”
拉森柏格在提到日常的簡訊、電子郵件和推文大行其道時說：「每個人都覺得自己能寫作，因為大家都在寫。」但她將這些人和專業作家區別開來，「作家在寫作技巧和藝術上持續耕耘多年。」

“What a professional writer can convey in written word is far superior to what the rest of us can do,” Ms. Rasenberger said. “As a society we need that, because it’s a way to crystallize ideas, make us see things in a new way and create understanding of who we are as a people, where we are today and where we’re going.”
「一位專業作家透過文字傳達的能力，遠在我們其他人之上。」拉森柏格說，「就社會而言我們需要這些人，因為這是讓想法成形，讓我們由新角度看待事物，創造我們對生而為人我們是誰、我們今日位於何處，還有我們將去向何方的了解的一種方法。」

原文參照：
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/05/books/authors-pay-writer.html

2019-02-03 聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析 莊蕙嘉

說文解字看新聞 莊蕙嘉

本文介紹在出版業式微下，作家收入也跟著減少，甚至難以餬口。文中提到作家收入，pay此處有「划算」，「值得」的意思。

作家的主要收入有兩種，即第三段的版稅royalty和預付金advance。版稅通常指的是以書籍售價乘以一定比率及銷售量後所得金額，類似抽成的概念，暢銷作家可以談到較高的版稅。預付金則像是簽約金，出版社與作家議定出書合約後支付的錢。另外royalty和advance也分別有權利金和預支款之意。

第四段的手續費commission和marketing fees則是出版社支出的費用，commission也作俯金，指因委任服務而支付的金錢，像是買房子時付給仲介的服務費用。fee泛指專業服務的費用，例如律師費、看醫師或是本文的行銷費。

去年的紐時賞析曾介紹過side gig，意同本文的gig，指主要工作以外的兼差。「零工經濟」是財經學者黛安．穆考伊提出的名詞，指在正職工作之外，以其他專長增加收入的現象。

同段的hustle有「忙亂、推擠」之意，在文中指作家努力兼差賺錢、填補收入不足的樣子，故譯為「窮忙」。

Rome-Paris Dispute Is Enough to Make Mona Lisa Weep
義大利民粹主義者 為達文西跳腳
By Jason Horowitz

In a small showroom filled with replicas of Leonardo da Vinci masterpieces, Lucia Borgonzoni, Italy’s undersecretary for culture and a member of the right-wing League party, attested to the authenticity of her disgust with the French.
在一個滿是達文西名作複製品的小展間裡，義大利文化遺產部副部長、右翼「北方聯盟黨」成員陸琪亞．波爾宮佐尼，證明了她對法國人的厭惡真實不虛。

She accused France of trying to culturally appropriate Leonardo for a 2019 exhibition at the Louvre celebrating the 500th anniversary of his death. And that was just the beginning.
她指控法國企圖在文化上盜用達文西，好讓羅浮宮今年舉辦紀念達文西逝世500周年的展覽。事情還不止於此。

France had treated Italy with “a lack of respect” and like a cultural “supermarket” by “sending a shopping list” of the works it wanted to borrow – essentially everything.
法國對義大利「缺乏尊重」，視之如文化「超市」，送來一張商借達文西作品的「採購清單」，幾乎什麼都要。

“Probably no other country would dare” to behave as France had, she said, warming to the topic as she faced a fake Mona Lisa in the Leonardo da Vinci Experience museum near the Vatican. She perused reproductions of Vitruvian Man and the Annunciation. “Let’s give them these,” she said with a laugh.
波爾宮佐尼說，「大概沒有哪個國家膽敢」跟法國一樣。她在梵蒂岡附近達文西體驗博物館內，面對一幅蒙娜麗莎複製品，聊起這個話題。她端詳達文西著名素描「維特魯威人」和油畫作品「聖母領報」複製品後，笑著說：「就給他們這些吧。」

Not much has been off limits as Borgonzoni’s hard-right League party pushes its “Italians First” agenda. Italian women are encouraged to have more babies. Migrants are shown the door. Matteo Salvini, the party leader, fills his social media feeds with posts about Italian pasta and wine.
波爾宮佐尼的極右派北方聯盟黨推動「義大利人優先」政策時，幾乎百無禁忌。他們鼓勵義大利女人生更多小孩。驅逐移民，黨魁薩維尼的社群媒體帳號則充斥著關於義大利麵和葡萄酒的貼文。

Nationalism – taboo for half a century following World War II and the fall of Mussolini – is suddenly in, as every possible political dispute is cast in chauvinist hues. Culture had long been a relatively neutral terrain. Not anymore. And deliberately so.
二次大戰結束、義大利獨裁者墨索里尼倒台後長達半個世紀，國家主義一直是禁忌，現在卻突然流行起來，每個可能發生的政治糾紛都染上國家至上主義的色彩。文化長期以來是相對中立的領域。如今則不復如此，而且是刻意使然。

“Being from the League, it’s our way of seeing the country, the society and the world,” Borgonzoni said of the party’s Italians First playbook.
波爾宮佐尼談到北方聯盟黨「義大利人優先」的核心思想時說：「這個觀念來自北方聯盟黨，是我們看待國家、社會和世界的方式。」

When it comes to Leonardo, the result is either an inelegant and amateurish faux pas, as her critics contend, or a political masterstroke before European Parliament elections in May. Either way, Borgonzoni has helped her party escalate tensions with France at a moment when Europe is already undergoing a dramatic political realignment.
在達文西這件事上，這樣的結果若不是批評者所指稱的粗俗且外行的失禮行為，就是在今年5月歐洲議會選舉前政治上的神來之筆。不論是哪一種，波爾宮佐尼都在歐洲正在經歷戲劇性政治重組之際，讓她的黨與法國的緊張關係加劇。

Along with the bureaucrats in Brussels, pro-European French President Emmanuel Macron has been the target par excellence of an Italian populist government that has repeatedly picked, and won, political fights on everything from migration to trade.
支持歐洲統合的法國總統馬克宏，跟布魯塞爾的歐盟官僚一樣，是義大利民粹政府的頭號攻擊目標，這個政府針對移民、貿易等各種議題一再挑起政治鬥爭，而且連戰皆捷。

“Surely our states are having a moment, not only in culture, of friction,” said Borgonzoni, “Surely the fact that Europe is going to vote next year has raised the tension” on a range of issues including, now, Leonardo.
波爾宮佐尼說：「我們國家之間此際當然有摩擦，不只在文化上。歐洲今年要選舉，當然使」包括目前達文西事件在內一系列議題的「緊張情況升級」。

Born in 1452 outside Vinci, centuries before the creation of the Italian state, Leonardo grew up in Florence, lived in Milan and stopped off in Rome before moving to France, where he died and was buried.
達文西1452年在文西鎮郊外出生，當時離義大利建國還有幾世紀。他成長於佛羅倫斯，長居於米蘭，在羅馬短暫停留後移居法國，在法國過世並下葬。

原文參照：
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/27/world/europe/italy-leonardo-da-vinci-france-louvre.html

2019-02-03 聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析 李京倫