During May and June, Amplify Writers conducted a survey in order to better understand the types of career support writers in our community need, the barriers to access they’ve experienced, and their preferred formats for receiving support. This survey is the first step toward our goal of providing free or low-cost programs to support the career development of writers with backgrounds, experiences, or identities that are underrepresented in publishing. 

The summary below highlights some of our initial findings from the survey. As we continue with our work, we are committed to transparency in our processes and to fostering ongoing conversation with writers to determine the best path forward. To that end, we are hosting a community forum on Wednesday, August 3 from 12:00-1:30 PST via Zoom. At the forum, we will discuss the full results of our survey, ensuring that the next steps in our project are determined based on our community’s interpretation of the results.

We hope you’ll join us for this conversation. 

Seventy-one writers responded to our survey, 80% of whom self-identified as marginalized writers. However, only 13% of respondents identified as racially marginalized, indicating we need to continue to reach out to writers of color to ensure our programming meets their needs. 

Our survey confirmed that writers have a better understanding of how to access programs to improve their craft than programs that support career development. In fact, 25-30% of respondents indicated that they did not know how to access support for their career at all, compared to only 1-5% of writers who were unsure how to access support to improve their craft. Forty percent of writers indicated that they experienced barriers to accessing career support, with financial barriers including application fees, child care and transportation costs, and the cost of programs themselves being most common. 

More than half of respondents indicated that they needed support in the following areas: 

• Securing media coverage for a book (81% need support)

• Securing a grant or fellowship (80% need support)

• Participating in a reading series or similar literary event (65% need support)

• Publishing a book or chapbook (57% need support)

• Presenting at a writing conference (56% need support)

• Teaching a writing workshop, class, or seminar (56% need support)

• Creating an author website, newsletter or other content related to an author platform (55% need support)

• Attending a writing residency (50% need support)

Writers’ preferences for the format of programming were mixed. Forty percent of respondents indicated their first choice for accessing programming was via in-person affinity groups; when asked which approaches to programming they’d be willing to participate in, respondents were equally amenable to a range of in-person and virtual options.

Overall, our survey results indicate that Amplify Writers is moving in the right direction. Marginalized writers at every level of experience do need increased access to free or low-cost programs to support their career development. 

We hope you’ll join us on August 3 from 12:00-1:30 PST to dig a little deeper into our data and offer your perspectives on how we can address the needs of our writing community!