The Datum Report

Occupation 3412 · Associate professional occupations

Authors, writers and translators

Half of full-time authors, writers and translators in the UK earn more than £39,459 a year, and half earn less.

Authors, writers and translators write, edit and evaluate literary material for publication excluding material for newspapers, magazines and other periodicals but including scripts and narrative for film, TV, radio and video games and animations; and translate spoken and written statements into different languages.

How people enter it

Entry is possible with a variety of academic qualifications and/or relevant experience. Postgraduate and professional qualifications are available and are required for some occupations.

What the work involves

• determines subject matter and researches as necessary by interviewing, attending public events, seeking out records, observing etc.
• generates and develops creative ideas for literary material
• selects material for publication, checks style, grammar and accuracy of content, arranges for any necessary revisions and checks proof copies before printing
• negotiates contracts with freelance agents and with buyer on behalf of writer
• writes instruction manuals and user guides, technical reports, catalogues and indexes, prepares sales literature and writes technical articles for trade journals
• converts documents or spoken statements from original or source language into another language
• provides communication support for the hard of hearing or the visually impaired

Also called

Copywriter · Editor (books) · Interpreter · Technical author · Translator · Writer

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for authors, writers and translators, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 7 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Actors, entertainers and presenters · Artists · Arts officers, producers and directors · Dancers and choreographers · Musicians · Photographers, audio-visual and broadcasting equipment operators