Crumbs for Bottom Feeders

Here's one effect of those big advances:

The average author earns about £16,000, a third less than the national average wage... But hidden behind that figure released by the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is a grimmer truth: when you take away the superstars who are earning shedloads, the actual figure for the rest is closer to £4,000.

Thanks to Charles Lambert and Debi Alper for pointing me to the link.