What We Don’t Understand, We Rarely Talk About

Isn’t it difficult to talk openly about something you don’t fully understand?

Earnings often arrive as a number without context. A royalty statement that’s difficult to read, sometimes almost impossible to make sense of. A payment that arrives long after the work has been done. It all feels opaque, and perhaps it’s no wonder, then, that we don’t talk about it.

Could there even be a sense of embarrassment in not fully understanding your own royalty arrangements and statements, despite the fact that they concern your own work and, in many cases, the livelihood you’re hoping to build?

Over the past year, there has been quite a bit of discussion in Nordic media about what it means to make a living as an author. The focus is often on low earnings and, occasionally (far too rarely, in our view), on the long wait to get paid. But perhaps these conversations overlook a significant part of the challenge: the uncertainty in between.

Not knowing what to expect. Not being able to follow how your work is actually being received. Living with a financial reality that only becomes visible once it’s already in the past.

Many authors describe this uncertainty as one of the reasons they take on additional jobs or pursue parallel careers. Not necessarily because their earnings are nonexistent, but because they’re impossible to predict.

At the same time, experiences from other industries, where access to earned income has changed, suggest something interesting: a significant part of our sense of security and financial control seems to come from simply knowing. From being able to see what you’ve earned, even if you don’t withdraw the money straight away.

Many people who have the option to access their wages whenever they choose still leave the money untouched until their regular payday. The difference isn’t access to the money itself, but access to the information.

Perhaps, then, we should turn the question around. Instead of asking why artists don’t talk more openly about money, we might ask:

Are the systems that determine their earnings transparent enough to make those conversations possible in the first place?

And that question becomes even more interesting when we consider that transparency is no longer just an ideal. It’s a legal right.

The EU’s Digital Single Market (DSM) Directive, which was implemented into Swedish copyright law a few years ago, establishes that creators have the right to up-to-date, relevant and comprehensive information about how their works are exploited and what revenues they generate.

Yet many authors say they aren’t even aware that this right exists. And many don’t realise that publishers themselves often have very limited access to the information.

Perhaps that says something about how far we still have to go before legislation translates into everyday reality for creators.

Because ultimately, transparency isn’t just about making information available. It’s about making it possible to understand, use and talk about.